J-WITCH Season 1
by Iron117Prime
Summary: Shendu and the other Demon Sorcerers have been defeated. However, now is not the time to rest for Jackie Chan as he and his family must leave San Francisco for Heatherfield to help train a group of teenage girls to become the next generation of Guardians to defend Earth from the Forces of Darkness. (Season 1 of W.I.T.C.H.) (Minor swears, a little bit of blood)
1. It Begins

**Hello to one and all and welcome to my next big story! This is one story I've been wanting to write for some time now. I remember when I was a kid, my little sister and I used to watch "Jackie Chan Adventures" all the time, it was one of my favorite shows. We also used to watch "W.I.T.C.H." as well. That was more of my sister's favorite show; at first, I didn't really think I'd be impressed at all with it, just thinking it was another one of those "girly" type shows. But I was proven sorely wrong. W.I.T.C.H. is actually a very interesting show with a multi-layered plot, three dimensional characters (both protagonists and antagonists), and lots of colorful action sequences with the main characters dealing with real-life issues that other people can relate to. **

**After re-watching these shows, a while back, now that I'm older, I'm able to better understand what is happening and some important life-lessons that both may be trying to get across. So, I decided to try and cross them over. After watching them, I can see they actually seem to flow pretty well together.**

**I also drew some inspiration from another author who also wrote a crossover between JCA and WITCH called "Guardians, Wizards, and Kung Fu Fighters", so you may find some similarities between these two stories if you've already read that as well. I spoke with the author and they said it be okay; because I actually plan to take my story in a different direction than theirs. **

**This portion of my story will take place during Season 1 of W.I.T.C.H. and after Season 2 of Jackie Chan Adventures. You'll see some elements from Season 3 of JCA as well, but it won't follow the exact same plotline. **

**I own neither Jackie Chan Adventures nor W.I.T.C.H. So, without further delay. Let us get started with J-W.I.T.C.H. Season 1! **

**It Begins**

Uncle's Rare Finds was a one-of-a-kind antique store located in San Francisco, owned by a single man who had no intent of making it a corporation. This man was indeed an elderly man, one of Chinese Ethnicity; who didn't appear to have a single muscle on his body. He had baggy blue pants with light brown shoes, along with a white-button up shirt and a yellow sleeveless jacket over it. No one could have ever suspected that this man was indeed a great and mighty Chi-Wizard, whose magic spells have helped saved the world from demons on numerous occasions.

It was pretty late at night as the elderly man had already closed his shop for the day, and his apprentice/roommate had already gone to sleep as he had used his feather-duster to finish dusting some of his priceless antiques when the phone on his desk rang. The elderly man quickly answered it.

"Uncle's Rare Finds is closed for today. Call again tomorrow."

"_Ah dear Jin, you may not want to sound to forceful if you want customers." _

Uncle gave a loud gasp at not just the elderly woman on the other line saying his name, but it was the voice that he recognized.

"Yan Lin."

"_Good to hear you as well, Jin." _

"Why you call me? You usually just write letters?"

"_Do I really need a reason to call and catch up?" _The elderly woman named Yan Lin teased, causing Uncle to roll his eyes and sigh. _"However, I do need your help with an urgent matter."_

Uncle caught the serious tone of her voice. "How urgent?"

"_It is time for the next generation of Guardians."_

Uncle gave yet another audible gasp as he almost shot out of his chair. "Are you certain of this?!"

"_The Heart of Kandrakar has been acting up. And it would seem that my granddaughter has been chosen."_

Uncle said nothing in response. The moment he heard the word 'Kandrakar', so many complicated feelings built up inside him. There was happiness for sure, but also anger and a great deal of sadness and regret as well.

"_I will need you here in Heatherfield, soon." _Yan Lin told him. _"It seems the others will be here as well within a few days. Oh, and please bring that nice nephew of yours you wrote to me about."_

"Jackie?" Uncle asked.

"_From the letters you've wrote about him, he seems quite the warrior when it comes to battling the Forces of Darkness. Seeing how young this new generation of Guardians might be, they will need the aid of someone who is more experienced to help train and guide them." _Yan Lin explained. _"And it may be niece for that niece of yours as well to make some new friends."_

The old Chi Wizard knew this was true. Jackie Chan has gone up against the Ultimate Evil himself and even bested him, even Jade was instrumental against such monsters as well, despite being so young. Tohru could be a big help as well, no pun intended.

"Very well." Uncle said over the phone. "We will be there as soon as possible."

"_Good, I'm looking forward to seeing you again." _Yan Lin said to him before Uncle hung up.

"Aiya…" Uncle sighed as he rubbed his hand down his face again. "Kandrakar again."

* * *

_The Next Day_

"Uncle, why are we flying off to Heatherfield so soon? It's on the other side of the country!" A young man, who appeared to be in his late 20s or early 30s questioned as he followed his elderly Uncle through the airport, along with a young girl no older than twelve, and a very large man that one could easily mistake as a sumo wrestler.

"Because, an old friend of Uncle's has requested for our help." Uncle answered as they pulled their luggage towards the check-in desk. "It would seem that new Forces of Darkness are beginning to rise."

Though both men looked in surprise, the younger girl however had an eager grin on her face. "Whoa! Does that mean a new adventure?! Yes!" She pumped her fist.

"Uh… but Uncle, we've already defeated Shendu and the other demons!" The young man exclaimed.

"Jackie is right, Sensei." The large man agreed. "We've sealed all the portals, and even Captain Black has recovered the Pan'ku Box… OW!"

"OW!" Jackie and the large man had both been slapped on the forehead by two of Uncle's fingers.

"Clean wax out of ears!" Uncle stated. "I said '_new_ Forces of Darkness'! Yes, Shendu and the other Demon Sorcerers have been defeated. However, by doing so, a void has been created, one that will soon be filled by another evil. One I fear may not just threaten Earth but other worlds as well."

"Other worlds?" The girl asked. "Does that mean aliens?!" She asked excitedly.

"No such thing!" Uncle quickly said. "Jade has been watching too many movies! We are dealing with separate dimensions."

"What's the difference?" Jade asked with a shrug.

"But… why us Uncle?" Jackie asked. He never did like being dragged into these magic battles against mystical forces of evil, and yet that always seems to be the case.

"Because, this particular battle will require additional forces." Uncle explained. "You see, there will be a group of young warriors who will be granted magic powers to battle this new evil. And you, Jackie and Tohru, must help train them."

"Train?" Jackie asked.

"Oooh." Jade groaned. "So were not gonna fight anyone?"

"I do not understand, Sensei." The large man name Tohru said.

"All will be explained in due time." Uncle said. "But for now, we must catch flight! Plane will not wait for us to take off, nor will Forces of Darkness wait for our arrival! We must go! There is no time for dilly-dally!"

As Uncle walked towards the check-in-desk, Jade happened to look quite excited. "Come on guys! Time for a new adventure!" She quickly and excitedly followed her elderly great Uncle.

Jackie looked emotionally exhausted, when Tohru placed a hand on his shoulder. "You know your Uncle means well, Jackie. If he says its important, it usually is."

"I know." Jackie nodded. "I'm just not too thrilled about Jade being pulled into yet another crazy battle."

"She always finds a way to get involved." Tohru said. "That's just how she is."

Jackie couldn't deny it. Despite being told repeatedly to stay back, Jade always comes charging in. Though he was proud of his niece and all she's accomplished, he just wished she had a normal life with friends that didn't involve her risking her life. But if these 'young warriors' needed help in training, not only could Jackie train them, but maybe they could rub off a bit on Jade and she could potentially make new friends. She did always tell him how she barley, made any real friends at her school.

So, with nothing else needed to be said, Jackie and Tohru caught up with Uncle and Jade as they got their tickets and boarded their flight to Heatherfield.

* * *

Meridian, a world that exists completely separate from the Earth. One could make comparisons from it to medieval Europe; complete with castles. One such caste, was the one that stood on the mountain top, one that seemed fit for a cruel and dark leader. The architecture was almost completely black from the outside with a vast swirling purple vortex hanging above it as the castle stood over a small town: a symbol of dominance and oppression.

Yet, despite the intimidating appearance, there was still a young man who dared to try and enter. He was a tall person with brown hair and green eyes, he wore a brown trench coat over a grey shirt and pants with brown boots. He ran along the rooftops on the lower parts of the castle, through the rain as lightning and thunder boomed around him.

He quickly and quietly slipped through an open window into what appeared to be a small armory. It was relatively unguarded as the only sentry appeared to be sleeping. He wore armor fit for a barbarian while bearing the appearance of an Orc mixed with a troll. The young man quietly made his way toward a box and opened it to reveal a series of familiar swords.

"_Phobos steals our weapons to use against us." _He thought to himself as he scowled slighting. He turned and spotted a bow and a set of arrows hanging from the wall. He was quick to grab the bow. _"Aldarn's father made this bow." _

The young man quickly and quietly made his way to a pile of barrels, containing explosive powder. He picked one up and put into a small window before putting another one in to push the first barrel out. The barrel fell down and into the moat below where the young man's comrade, a green skinned humanoid with small horn-like features along his head. He used a hooked rod to pull the barrel, followed by several others that fell one at a time. He looked up toward the window.

"Caleb, that's enough. Get out." He knew his friend was in greater danger the longer he stayed in that castle.

That would prove to be true as a sentry on a balcony below the armory spotted the falling barrels and quickly ran inside.

The sentry ran into the armory and awoke his comrade to see the young man named Caleb. "Hey! You!"

Caleb was busted. "Looks like plan B." He grabbed a rope from the ceiling and swung toward a stack of boxes, while grabbing a torch with his free hand in the process as he landed. He stuffed the torch into a barrel of powder and threw it, almost like one would a grenade. The two guards panicked and ran just as the barrel rolled and hit the wall, causing a large explosion.

However, the explosion was enough for the alarm to go off as a guard in another part of the castle blew on a horn to alert every single guard in the castle. They all grabbed whatever weapons they could, notably axes.

Caleb had to get out fast. He threw another barrel and shot a flaming arrow at it towards the wall, creating another explosion that blew away the wall and much of the armory, giving Caleb the opening that he needed. He quickly jumped outside and dived straight into the moat below. No time to rest as he surfaced; a massive eel-like water monster was alerted to his presence.

"Caleb! Behind you!" His green-skinned friend, Aldarn, warned as he threw his hook like a spear at the creature's neck, distracting it long enough for Caleb to swim away where Aldarn helped him out.

Their reunion was cut short by a series of arrows shot at them by the Orc-like guards from what was left of the armory, that they could barely avoid. Aldarn was about to grab a barrel, but there wasn't enough time.

"Leave the powder! Let's go!" Caleb told him as the two made a run for it.

The guards shot more arrows from the armory as they groaned in anger while a few helped their injured comrades up. However, their attention was quickly caught by an enormous snake-like humanoid creature that entered the room. He grabbed one of the injured guards and brought him close to his face.

"Who did thissss?" The large snake-man questioned with a hiss.

"A boy…" The guard coughed. "One of the rebels…"

"Find him!" The snake-man ordered.

* * *

_Earth _

A storm brewed over the city of Heatherfield, but no one really seemed to care all that much as they went about their daily lives, including passing a local Chinese Restaurant called 'The Silver Dragon', which also served as a home for the Lin family. The occupants being a young twelve-year-old girl named Hay Lin, her parents, and her grandmother Yan Lin.

The grandmother in question was tending to some laundry in the living room area. She knew that her old friend Jin Chan, along with his nephew Jackie, his great-niece Jade, and even his apprentice Tohru would be arriving today as well. She was excited to see him after so long, as well as meeting his family for the first time. Her thoughts however were suddenly interrupted by a load and booming sound, almost like a whirlwind mixed with thunder coming from upstairs.

Before she could dwell on what was going on, she saw the cabinet door on her right open slightly, almost automatically, to revel a cracked-open chest with a strong pink glow emanating from it. She gave an audible gasp as she knew what it meant.

When she heard the door opening behind her, she was quick to close the cabinet and turned to see the distressed face of her granddaughter.

"Grandma, I sneezed and like totally trashed my room. What's wrong with me? It's not one of those 'becoming a woman' things, is it?"

"Hay Lin, you're just a growing girl." Yan Lin tried to assure her. "Probably a common cold, nothing to worry about." She knew that it was really her granddaughter's powers starting to grow. She didn't think it happen this quickly, guess it was a good thing the Chan family would be arriving later today. Though she'd hoped they get some rest from the jet-lag.

"Say, why not invite some friends over for an after-school snack?" Yan Lin offered. "How about Cornelia? Or Taranee? Or that funny girl, Irma."

Hay Lin smiled. "Sure, sounds like fun." Suddenly, someone else came to mind. "Or that new girl, Will." She looked in minor surprise. "I wonder why I thought of her?"

Yan Lin smiled a bit, having used a small portion of her own power to sort of influence her granddaughter's thoughts a bit.

* * *

Sheffield Institute was a special type of school that taught classes from 7th grade to 12th; seemed like a middle school and high school all rolled up in one.

The newest student to the instate, a red-haired thirteen-year-old girl named Will Vandom, had just arrived with an umbrella, her mother having dropped her off.

"Go on Will, and don't forget, make lots of new friends today." Her mother told her with a loving smile. "I put a dozen extra cookies in your lunch, to help break the ice with the other girls."

"Gee, that'll make me popular." Will muttered to herself sarcastically before waving her mother goodbye and walking toward her new school.

* * *

Jade gave a loud and audible yawn as she stretched her arms as she and her family walked out of the plane and into the airport.

"Aw man. Six hours! I hate long flights." Jade complained as she stretched out.

"No time to rest! We must meet with old friend immediately!" Uncle stated as Jackie and Tohru followed with the group's suitcases.

"But Uncle, we haven't even checked into a hotel yet." Jackie said.

"Forces of Darkness are on the move! We must move even faster if we are to be ready!" Uncle stated as he continued to lead the tired group.

"I wonder just who these warriors are." Tohru wondered aloud.

"Whoever they are, I hope they're awesome!" Jade stated.

"And perhaps they can serve as a good influence for you Jade." Jackie told his niece, and she responded with an annoyed eye-roll.

* * *

_Meridian_

The storm had cleared as Caleb and Aldarn had made it well-past the castle town, but they still didn't stop running as they probably had several of Phobos' soldiers chasing after them.

"I told you to take a rope!" Aldarn scolded his friend.

"You also told me I couldn't break into the castle." Caleb joked as he handed Aldarn the bow he carried. "Here's your father's bow. At least this won't be used against us…"

Caleb however almost slipped as they ran toward an edge of a deep and large canyon into the ground. It was way too far for them to jump, and too deep for them to jump below without seriously injuring themselves.

Both of them heard a loud an animalistic call as they turned around and saw a small army of sentries, and even uglier creatures, all marching toward them as they rode several rhino-like steeds. They would be on them in no time. However, both of the young rebels looked down into the canyon and spotted a small group of ostrich-like creatures.

"Huggons!" They both recognized them with wide smiles. They may be able to escape yet.

With the small army closing in on them, the two rebels ran along the side of the canyon. "How far down do you think it goes?" Aldarn asked.

"Jump, and I'll tell you." Caleb replied as they jumped towards a small stone-tower that was closer toward the ground, before jumping to another that hung right over the Huggons. Once they were close enough to jump without injuring themselves if they landed on the ground, they each leapt onto a Huggon.

The ostrich-like creatures were startled by this and almost ran on a panic. "Whoa! Easy boy! Easy boy!" Aldarn tried to calm his make-shift steed.

They were both able to at least pull their Huggons toward a smaller canyon that led them further away from the army, but their ride was anything but smooth.

"Whoa! Whoa, you ugly-overgrown-chicken! I said Whoa!" Caleb tried to calm his down as they escaped; leaving the small army groaning in anger and frustration as they were unable to follow them with their own rhino steeds.

* * *

_Earth – Sheffield Institute _

Several students had gathered in the gymnasium to present their science projects. One group was a trio of girls; a fourteen-year-old blonde Caucasian, a thirteen-year-old Latina with light brown hair, and a thirteen-year-old African American blue haired girl with glasses.

"Cornelia, our project is supposed to that too much fertilizer reverses osmosis, killing the plant!" The African American girl, Taranee, told the Blonde named Cornelia. "Yours has grown like three inches!"

Cornelia sighed in annoyance. "Well, I tried to kill it. I fertilized it's little butt off!"

The Latina girl named Irma gave a subtle gasp. "The judge." She warned her friends of the judge and Principle Knickerbocker who were coming their way. Cornelia tried to actually beat down the plant to make it look as dead as the other two, while Irma and Taranee tried to cover her. It didn't seem like the Principle or the Judge noticed.

"Oh great, you and your little girly fists are gonna cost us a ribbon." Irma said to Cornelia as she finished pounding the plant. Oddly though, the blonde looked in surprise to see her plant recover almost immediately.

Will had entered the gymnasium and wondered around. Since she was new, she didn't have any projects to present. So, she thought she might as well look at some of the other stuff the other students made. She happened to pass by a group of four punkish looking teenage boys.

"Hey, check out the new girl." One punk noticed her. "Hey Wilma."

"It's just Will." She glared at him.

"Okay, Wil_ma_!" He teased again, resulting in his pals laughing as Will walked toward the stand Irma, Cornelia, and Taranee were at. Hay Lin was nearby was well.

"That's Uriah. Ignore him." Hay Lin told Will.

"Yeah, evolution did." Irma cracked. "One day we expect him to slither back into the water." However, the second she said that, right as one of Uriah's pals took a drink from a nearby drinking fountain, only for the water to spray out and land right at Uriah's face. Though Irma looked in honest shock, pretty much everyone else who saw that laughed.

"Hey!" Uriah exclaimed to his friend.

"Sorry Uriah, I don't know what happened."

The five girls shared a quick laugh. "Oh, Hay Lin, I got your note." Will said to her. "Thanks so much for the invitation. So what time are we eating?"

Though Taranee and Irma seemed to smile at the thought of a new friend being made, Cornelia looked a bit skeptical. "She invited 'New Girl' to?" She whispered to her friends.

"Cornelia!" Taranee scolded, unfortunately, Will did hear it and looked a bit upset before she pulled out the box of cookies her mom had packed.

"Want a cookie?" She offered with a strained smile.

* * *

_Meridian_

Within the very same dark castle that Caleb escaped from was a large and dark throne room with dark purple stained-glass windows all around, as well as large pillars decorated with black roses. The occupant of the room sat upon a black throne that was perched high on top a long set of stairs behind a large tree of thorns, was a young man with long white hair, wearing a black and red royal robe along with a dark red crown.

Another man entered the chamber, he had the appearance of a young man with short blonde hair and purple eyes and a noble green robe. He bowed before the man in the throne.

"Prince Phobos. We have had a breach. The armory has been destroyed, and the interlopers escaped the main guard. We suspect they head for the mountains."

The man identified as Prince Phobos wasn't too pleased with this. "The more success the Rebels have, the more it emboldens the peasants to rise up. This is too important to leave to guards."

The man in green understood. "Yes, my Prince." He said with a hiss. His eye quickly turned into reptilian slits as his whole body had undergone a powerful transformation. It grew in size and strength as his skin turned into green scales, his legs transforming into a massive tail, and his muscles growing exponentially. His transformation was complete, revealing himself as the humanoid serpent from before.

"I shall handle it myssself!" With a final hiss, he quickly slithered out the main gate.

As Phobos sat back on his throne, another man had entered the room from the shadows along the wall. Unlike the previous two, he had the appearance of a scrawny elderly man who appeared well over one hundred years old. He had long white hair with really pale skin with black tattoos on his face; his right eye being teal blue and his left eye being yellow. He had a black robe with pointed shoulders and teal blue arm-sleeves.

"My Prince." The elderly man bowed. "Why send that fool, Cedric? I can easily intercept and eliminate the rebel myself."

"I have no doubt you can." Phobos said. "However, I need you here to reinforce the castle's defenses. I cannot tolerate a breach, even if the damage is only minor."

"I have already repaired the armory and even saw to it the sentry in there has been properly punished."

Phobos had an impressive smirk on his face. "So quick to solve the problem. I knew I was right to recruit you to my cause Daolong Wong; your vast knowledge of dark magic has been most beneficial to me."

The elderly man known as Daolong Wong bowed respectfully as an evil smile graced his face. "I am truly grateful for your generosity, mighty Prince Phobos. While the wizards of Earth would see me hunted down, your realm of Meridian enables me to act as I see fit."

"Just make sure I do not regret my decision." He gave Wong an eye showing that he was not so easily deceived or manipulated.

"I assure you, you will not." Wong bowed once more before vanishing in a puff of dark blue smoke.

* * *

_Earth – The Silver Dragon_

Jackie, Jade, Uncle, and Tohru all walked into the restaurant, and Jade immediately took a liking to it. "Wow, nice place."

"So, Uncle, this is where we are meeting your old friend?" Jackie asked.

"You guessed right." Yan Lin answered as she walked onto the scene. "Hello Jin, it's been a while." She greeted Uncle with a smile.

Uncle bore a friendly smile as well. "Good to see you as well Yan Lin."

"Jin? Who the heck is Jin?" Jade questioned.

"Jade, Jin is Uncle's first name. His full name is Jin Chan." Jackie told his niece, much to hers and even Tohru's surprise.

"I always thought his name was 'Uncle'." Jade voiced with wide-eyes as she looked towards Tohru who simply shrugged.

"And this handsome young man must be your nephew, Jackie." Yan Lin walked towards the aforementioned man. "A pleasure to meet you, your Uncle has written much about you in his letters. To battle the likes of demons with your bare hands is something not just anyone can brag about."

"Oh… well thank you I…" Jackie shook her hand with a friendly smile before he looked in surprise. "Uncle told you about Shendu and his kin?"

"Of course. It's one of the reasons I invited you all here." Yan Lin responded casually before turning to the rest of the group, particularly the largest man present. "You must be Jin's apprentice, Tohru. You certainly are a big boy; you must eat very well."

"Eh… thank you. A pleasure to meet you as well, Miss Lin." Tohru bowed his head as to respect his elder.

Yan Lin then looked to the only other female in the room. "And this cute little tike must be Jade. You certainly are a pretty girl."

"Thanks… but I don't like to be called that stuff." Jade said. "So, how do you know Uncle?"

"Oh we were quite the item in our day." Yan Lin answered.

"You were Uncle's _girlfriend_?!" Jade practically shouted. "Jackie! Uncle had a girlfriend?! Did you know Uncle had a girlfriend?! Tohru, did _you _know Uncle had a girlfriend?!"

Jackie and Tohru were a bit surprised as well, Uncle never mentioned this to any of them before. "Sensei…" Tohru was lost for words.

"Uncle… you never said…"

"You never asked." Uncle said simply; causing Jackie, Jade, and Tohru to look in wide-eyed fashion before practically falling over.

"They certainly are a lively bunch." Yan Lin complemented. "Please, all of you have a seat." She directed them towards a large table where they each took a seat, with Tohru having to sit on two chairs. "You must all be tired from the long flight here, so please relax." Yan Lin brought some water for everyone as well as a tray of fortune cookies.

"Awesome! Free fortune cookies! Thanks!" Jade took one and cracked it open to read the fortune inside. "'You will make a new best friend'." She looked a bit in surprise. "Still better than 'danger looms in your future'."

"Thank you." Jackie said. "Miss Lin… I do not mean to sound rude, but Uncle told us that we were called here for a reason."

"To help some warriors fight this big bad evil!" Jade said excitedly before motioning some punches and kicks.

Yan Lin smiled at Jade's enthusiasm. "Yes, and they will be here shortly. They should be back from school any minute"

"Back from school?" Jade asked. "What are they kids or something?"

"As a matter of fact, yes." Yan Lin answered, much to the surprise of everyone else except for Uncle. "They really aren't all that much older than you Jade, one of them being my granddaughter, Hay Lin."

"Children?" Jackie shared a shocked look with Tohru. The warriors they were told to come and help fight evil were children?!

Almost on que, the door opened as a group of five girls walked in, deep in their own conversation they didn't seem to notice Jackie, Jade, Uncle, and Tohru with Yan Lin.

"So, Will, where did you go to school before Sheffield?" Taranee asked the red-haired girl.

"Hello!? Who cares?" Cornelia spoke up before Will could answer. "Have you guys noticed a bunch of real strange stuff going around me lately?"

Irma gave a fake gasp. "Oh dear! The conversation has accidentally wondered away from Cornelia's life. Whatever were we thinking?" This resulted in the other girls, minus Cornelia, laughing in amusement.

"Ahem!" Yan Lin coughed rather loudly to get the five girls' attention as they just noticed the Chan family, and Tohru, sitting at the table.

"Um… Hello." Jackie waved sheepishly as even Tohru had an awkward, yet friendly, smile.

"Okay… this is awkward." Irma said aloud.

"Duh." Jade added.

"What the heck is going on here?" Cornelia questioned irritably. "Who the heck are these people? If this is some kind of trick I… OW!" The blonde rubbed her forehead where Uncle just delivered one of his titular dope slaps. "Did… did you just slap me?"

"Blonde girl must show respect! You are very rude to host!" Uncle chastised.

"I like this guy already." Irma whispered to Will.

Hay Lin coughed slightly. "So… Grandma… what's with this surprise?" She tried to sound the least rude she could be, or else risk getting dope slapped herself.

"Girls; I want you to meet a long old friend of mine. Jin Chan." She introduced the oldest man first. "This is his nephew Jackie, his great-niece Jade, and his apprentice, Tohru."

"Hello." Jackie smiled.

"Sup." Jade waved.

"Nice to meet you." Tohru nodded.

Most of the girls were taken by surprise at Tohru's size alone. "Whoa, you a sumo wrestler pal?" Irma asked in surprised.

Tohru blushed slightly. "I'm actually rather small for a sumo."

"If he's _small,_ I don't want to see a regular sized sumo." Taranee muttered to herself.

Jade smirked. "He may be 'small', but Big T here packs a _HUGE _punch!"

"I can believe that." Will muttered.

"Please everyone, have a seat." Hay Lin told the group as she brought out a small chest just as the girls began to sit at the same table. "Let me tell all of you a story, that I believe may have a special impact on each and every one of you."

Hay Lin looked a little embarrassed. "Grandma, they really don't want to hear a story."

Yan Lin playfully shushed her granddaughter as she began to spin her finger, creating a large astral image of what appeared to be the known universe. Though Jackie, Jade, and Tohru looked in minor surprise, it wasn't all that big given their past experience; Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin's eyes all widened, and their jaws practically dropped. Uncle however didn't look the least bit surprised.

"Whoa! How come we never seen you do that Uncle?" Jade asked.

Uncle gave a slight scoff. "Simple projection spell. Very easy to cast."

"Long ago, the Universe as we know it, was once one single entity, ruled and guarded by the forces of good." Yan Lin began to tell her 'story'. "However, the Universe also seeks balance: Yin and Yang; light and darkness, order and chaos, good and evil. One world, the kingdom of Meridian, was overtaken by dark forces. In order to prevent the rest of the Universe from falling into chaos, a great and magical veil was created to isolate Meridian and contain its evil." The magical projection showed a green planetoid that represented Meridian being covered by black roses and thrones, with a purple and vibrant aura surrounding the planet to represent the veil. "The one responsible for this darkness, is a man named Phobos." The projection began to shift as the black roses and vines changed into the form of a throne and the aforementioned tyrant sat at the top. Jackie looked to the projection of Phobos with a slight glare, reminding him very much of the likes of Valmont, even Shendu. "But he is not the legitimate ruler. Meridian's inhabitants believe that the true heir to the throne is somewhere here on Earth."

"Um… I'd like to wake up now." Irma voiced.

"Sshh." Jade shushed her. "This is getting good." She voiced with an eager grin, having a good idea where this is going.

Yan Lin continued her story. "But portals have begun to open in the veil." The magical projection showed a blue swirling portal for emphasis. "Doorways through which evil can cross between worlds. There are people called Guardians whose job it is to close these holes using their magical powers." She snapped her fingers as the projection vanished. "I became the guardian when I was your age. But now the duty is passing to your generation."

Cornelia immediately stood up. "Well, thanks for the snacks! OW!" She had been dope slapped by Uncle once more.

"Sit down! Story not finished yet!" Uncle exclaimed.

The blonde girl immediately sat back down as the other five girls sunk deeper into their chairs, as well, with the hope of avoiding being slapped.

"So these Guardians are like magic police?" Jade asked.

"Pretty much." Yan Lin nodded.

"Cool." Jade smiled. "Were you a Guardian to Uncle?"

"No. Guardians were all women; Uncle was not a Guardian."

"Your uncle may not have been an official Guardian, Jade; but he was more than helpful with me and my friends in our youth." Yan Lin said. "He was already a novice Chi Wizard, and he was quite the young master when it came to Kung Fu."

Jade's smile didn't fade in the least. "Go Uncle."

Though Jackie and Tohru were a bit surprised, they quickly came back to the moment. "So, this Phobos, you think he's going to come here to Earth?" Tohru asked.

"Most definitely." Yan Lin confirmed. "He already rules Meridian with an iron fist. Though there is a rebellion going on, they have yet to make any significant progress in defeating him. If he isn't stopped, I fear that not just Earth, but other worlds may be threatened by his darkness."

Jackie had a very good idea where this was going, though he didn't really like the idea, he figured it was something like this from what Uncle said before they arrived here. "You want us to help fight him, don't you?"

"Not quite." Yan Lin told Jackie. "Yes, I do expect that you will be fighting his forces Jackie, but you will not be doing it alone." Jackie only looked confused at that response as Yan Lin opened the box she brought out and pulled out a glowing pink jewel by a string necklace.

"This is the Heart of Kandrakar, which contains the elementary forces of nature." Yan Lin showed the crystal, as the six girls, Jackie, and Tohru looked in awe. Though it was small, they could tell there was something very special about it. Uncle however looked at it with contempt, some bad memories surrounded that jewel. "In the past few days, the five of you have each had unusual experiences, am I right?"

"Not counting this one?" Irma muttered to herself.

"Unusual pretty much defines my life at this point." Jade said.

"All five of you are starting to notice extraordinary abilities." Yan Lin told them. "Irma, you will have noticed any water near you behaving strangely."

Uncle handed Irma the glass of water that he had with a straw in it. Irma looked at it almost skeptically as she took the straw and started to stir the water, but as she pulled the straw out, she actually pulled out some of the water which hovered over the glass for a bit. That caught everyone, minus Uncle, by surprise. Though Jackie and Tohru have seen and experienced the Water element at work, this was the first time they'd seen a human girl use it.

Irma's shocked expression seemed to trigger the water falling back into the glass, causing her to look even more befuddled. "Okay… alrighty…"

"Taranee, I believe you have always been afraid of fire." Yan Lin told the bespectacled girl. "But focus now on the candle."

Taranee nervously pointed her finger toward the candle near her, but as she twitched, she shot a small flame from her finger that missed the candle and hit the table cloth below it. Jackie immediately poured the water from his glass onto the small flame to extinguish it immediately. Taranee thankfully smiled at Jackie who smiled back.

Jade didn't look all that impressed. "Shendu's was way worse." She muttered to herself.

Yan Lin held a lampshade in her hand as she looked to her granddaughter. "My little Hay Lin, this morning you noticed your power over Air." Hay Lin exhaled and sent a small gust of wind to inflate the lampshade.

"To you Cornelia, is gifted the power of Earth." Yan Lin said as she handed the blonde girl a small potted plant. Cornelia shakily held her hand over the pot as the small plant which quickly grew into a blooming flower, causing her to look in amazement, until the plant broke out of the pot and spread some of its roots across the table.

Jackie and Tohru, especially Jade, looked in amazement. These girls just showed off elemental powers. Granted, they didn't seem as magnificent or powerful as the Demon Sorcerers they recently defeated, but this was still pretty amazing.

"All five of you will get better with your powers. I hope." Yan Lin stated.

"Um… did you say five?" Hay Lin asked as everyone looked to the only girl who didn't seem to display any kind of power. Will looked as though she'd seen Big Foot; stunned silent with wide eyes.

"Oh! What power do you got?!" Jade asked excitedly. "Thunder? Sky? Mountain? What about Moon?! Oh, it has gotta be Moon! That power is awesome!"

"I… I can't even do that trick where it looks like your thumb comes apart!" Will exclaimed as she held her hands up defensively. "Seriously… this… this is nuts! I mean… magic? Space? Guardians? Am I the only one _not _about to have a panic attack right now?!"

Yan Lin gently put her hand on Will's shoulder to try and calm her down. "One of the five, binds the others, and with the Heart of Kandrakar, unites them, summoning and magnifying their powers." The crystal in question lifted itself from Yan Lin's hand and hovered over the table as almost everyone looked at it in further amazement till it floated its way toward Will, almost as if the Heart was choosing her.

"Uh… recap…" Taranee stood up. "We gotta protect the world from evil by repairing holes in some kind of veil?"

"And probably beating the crap out of bad guys!" Jade exclaimed excitedly.

"This is so cool!" Irma seemed just as excited. "When can we start?!"

"You already have." Yan Lin answered.

"So, these five girls are supposed to be magical guardians?" Jackie asked, not liking the idea of children getting involved in some kind of magical war.

Yan Lin seemed to understand his concerns. "And that is why you are here as well, to help train them."

"Training?" Cornelia, Will, and Jackie all questioned at the same time.

"You expect girls to be ready to face Forces of Darkness like that?" Uncle questioned, snapping his fingers for emphasis. "You all need proper training. To hone your skills, to master your own bodies and magic."

"What kind of training exactly?" Hay Lin asked.

"Don't tell me we're gonna get karate lessons." Cornelia voiced skeptically.

"Kung Fu." Uncle answered. "Best self-defense. Whole body becomes a secret weapon."

"Trust me, Jackie is the best evil fighter out there!" Jade stated. "He took on crime lords, magic ninjas, and super-powered demons with his bare hands! Heck, pit Jackie against this Phobos guy and he'll knock him out so fast he won't know what hit him!"

Most of the girls were taken by surprise as Irma and Hay Lin looked to him excitedly. "You fought demons?!" Hay Lin questioned with a wide grin on her face.

"Real life demons? As in monsters straight from Hell?" Irma asked with an eager tone as well.

"Well, not exactly." Jackie tried to sound humble. "I didn't necessarily fight, I merely kept them busy as Uncle was the one who banished them."

"Banished?" Taranee questioned.

"Yeah, Uncle and Tohru are wizards!" Jade added.

"Wizards?! Seriously?!" Hay Lin asked.

"Well… I'm only an apprentice." Tohru said. "Sensei is the experienced Chi Wizard."

"Please." Cornelia scoffed. "If this guy's an actual wizard, then I'm Gandalf the Grey. And demons? Really this is all just a bunch of…"

"_Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao." _Uncle cited his titular chant as a green magic energy sphere materialized in his hands before it took the form of a Chinese Dragon that flew around all five of the girls as they looked in amazement, or fear in Will's case, before it stopped near Cornelia and gave her an Uncle-dope-slap on her forehead.

"Ow!" Cornelia rubbed her forehead again before the magic dragon vanished.

"Proof enough for ya?" Jade said with a smug grin while Cornelia comically sulked in defeat.

"I can understand this may be stressful for all of you." Hay Lin told the whole group. "However, a dark and difficult time lies ahead, and many good people will need your help. Jin, Jackie, Tohru, Jade, you have had plenty of experience battling the Forces of Darkness, and you can make this transition much less difficult." She turned her attention to the five chosen girls as the Heart of Kandrakar floated in front of them. "Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, Hay Lin, you have been chosen as the new Guardians of the Veil."

* * *

_Meridian _

At the same time; Daolon Wong recited a dark magic chant within his own personal chambers into a fountain of black water. He was presently searching for portals to Earth with the hopes of locating Phobos' sibling. However, something caught his attention as the black water became much more active. He may have located a portal, but he detected some new and powerful magic he never felt for a long time.

The black water shifted to reveal the setting of the Silver Dragon on Earth with a certain red-haired girl holding a familiar jewel.

Wong's eyes widened in surprise as he stopped the process. "The Heart of Kandrakar…"

* * *

_Earth – The Silver Dragon_

Will looked at the floating crystal before fear and anxiety took over. "No!" She pushed the floating Heart away, causing it to fall onto the table. "I… I can't do this! I can't…!" She quickly ran out of the restaurant.

"Hey, where's she going?" Jade asked.

"She's frightened." Yan Lin said. "I can't say I blame her."

"Is she gonna be okay?" Irma asked with concern.

"I will speak with her." Jackie stood up and walked out of the restaurant.

The moment became a bit akward as the four remaining girls looked towards Jade, Uncle, and Tohru.

"So, you're a wizard?" Hay Lin asked Uncle. "Does that mean you got some fancy robes or a wand."

"He actually uses a blow fish." Jade answered.

"A blowfish?" Cornelia asked skeptically.

"Where's the logic in that?" Taranee seemed just as skeptical.

As Uncle and Tohru tried to explain the concept of Chi-Magic to the other girls; Yan Lin looked in silent. It seemed that most of them were on-board, all with the exception of Will, though she was certain Jackie would be able to calm her down. Though she never met him before now, she could tell that he probably knew what she was feeling right now.

* * *

Will sat on a bench near the busy street as she tried to wrap her head around what just happened. Her parents had only recently got a divorce and was only the new girl at school for just a few short days. Now all of a sudden, she's supposed to be some kind of magic guardian made to fight bad guys from another world?! Why her?! This was both insane and unfair! She certainly saw enough to make her believe that magic was real, which she still hasn't gotten over, but why her? All she wants is just to have a nice and normal life, is that really too much to ask?!

Her chaotic thoughts were halted when she saw a bottle of water being handed to her by none other than Jackie.

"Here, trust me, it helps."

Will took the bottle and immediately began to chug the water down. It was able to help calm her down slightly so there was no further risk of her having a panic attack.

"Thanks." She said to Jackie who nodded with a smile. "So… this is real."

"Seems that way." Jackie acknowledged as he sat down next to her.

"Magic… monsters… all of it. It's really real." Will said, still in a small state of shock, despite having calmed down.

"Yes, it is." Jackie had seen more than enough to make him a believer at this point.

Will glanced towards him and saw that he was holding the Heart of Kandrakar in his right hand. "Keep that thing away from me! I don't want anything to do with it!"

Jackie sighed; he had a feeling this would be the case. "I know. I understand how it feels."

"How? How could you understand?" Will questioned. "I just want things to be normal! I don't want to fight some evil dark lord or whatever! I just… I just want to be normal. That's it."

"I can understand that very well." Jackie began. "Just over a year ago, I was a simple archeologist. I had a few 'adventures', but it was mostly just trips to ruins and excavation sites, translating parchments and inscriptions. I was content with a very simple life with my Uncle, and even my niece whom her parents sent to live with me to learn some discipline. That is until one of my excavations led me to a shield that just so happened to have a magic talisman imbedded into it; this led to me getting involved with government agencies, fighting a crime syndicate, and even an immortal demon sorcerer. It felt as though I was thrust into a completely different world."

Will looked at him in surprise as she hung onto every word. "So, why didn't you try to get out of it?"

"At first, I thought my role would be as something of a consultant." Jackie continued. "However, as my family became involved, they were placed in danger and I tried to protect them as best I could, and one thing led to another. So, I stayed, because I knew that if that kind of power fell into the wrong hands, so many people would be endangered, not just my family. I've even been placed in circumstances that could have decided the fate of the entire planet. But I kept going, because it felt like it was the right thing to do."

Will had no idea what to say to any of this. Jackie put a hand on her shoulder as he gave her an understanding look.

"I know just how stressful this can be." Jackie continued. "But, you're not alone. Each of those girls probably feels the same way you do." He held the Heart of Kandrakar closer. "If you decided to take this, you won't be doing it alone. It won't just be them either; Uncle, Tohru, even Jade and myself will all be there. I know I may have only just met you Will, but I am more than willing to be here for you whenever you feel you need me. I'll do everything in my power to help."

She looked at him in surprise, but the look in his eyes told her that he was telling the truth.

"However, I won't force you to do anything you don't want to." Jackie continued. "This has to be your choice. But who knows? While my adventures have all been dangerous, there were plenty of good experiences to take from them as well, I've even made several good friends I never thought I'd have before; and you may experience all that yourself. But again, that has to be your choice."

Will looked from him toward the Heart of Kandrakar. She still felt nervous, but now it didn't seem as bad. She wouldn't be doing this alone; she'd have other people to help her, even those who have experience with this sort of thing. And maybe… if this man… this honest and kind-hearted man said that there would be plenty of good experiences to come from it, then maybe it was worth it.

With a deep breath, Will took the Heart in her hands. "Okay, I'll give it a try." Jackie smiled at her. "Promise that… you'll still be here to help me?"

Jackie smiled as he placed a firm hand on her shoulder. "Will, I promise that I will be here whenever you need me."

Will smiled back at the man. "Thanks…. Mr. Chan."

"Please, call me Jackie."

* * *

_Meridian_

Caleb and Aldarn had managed to not only loose the small army previously chasing them but had even gained some significant distance. It would seem the two rebels were safe as they dismounted their tired hoggan steeds.

"Thanks for the ride, how much do I owe you?" Caleb jokingly asked the ostrich-like creature before it and the one Aldarn was riding collapsed on the ground to get some sleep.

"Uh… the Infinite City is still an hour's walk, Caleb." Aldarn said as they looked toward their destination across a large and empty field.

"For you. I'm not going." Caleb said, much to Aldarn's surprise.

"What?"

"I heard something from my informant." Caleb explained. "Phobos has discovered the rightful heir to the throne is alive, on Earth."

"Earth?"

"I need to find a portal. If we don't find the missing heir before Phobos does, Meridian and Earth are both doomed." He placed his hands firmly on his friends' shoulders who did the same. "Tell the men to stay strong, and the women not to worry. I hope to see you soon, Aldarn"

With that farewell, both friends went their separate ways as Aldarn ran toward the Infinite City while Caleb ran back in the direction they came.

Caleb climbed his way up a rocky hillside. However, once he reached the top, he looked in shock as he came face-to-face with the large humanoid serpent that was Cedric.

"How can something so small be so troublesome?" Cedric said with a hiss. Before Caleb could even react, Cedric slammed his massive tail at Caleb to send him rolling and tumbling down the hillside as the large serpent-man gave pursuit.

* * *

_Earth – Heatherfield _

Jackie, Jade, Uncle, and Tohru, along with Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin were all gathered underneath Heaterhfield's main bridge. It seemed like a good spot for the girls to practice their newfound powers, and for Jackie and the others to see what they can do so they know where to improve upon. Plus, no one else was around, so they wouldn't risk exposing any secrets as well.

"So, you can really use magic?" Hay Lin asked Tohru excitedly.

"I know the basics." The large man answered. "But I'm still far from ready when it comes to the more advanced spells."

"Well with your… you know size… I thought you could coat your giant fists in magic and smash through solid steel!" Irma stated. "That be pretty cool!"

Tohru smiled kindly at the girls. "It doesn't really work that way. There's a whole lot of reading and studying as well."

Irma looked a bit disappointed. "Wow, sounds too much like homework."

"Tell me about it." Jade rolled her eyes.

"So, you can use magic to?" Taranee asked her.

Jade shrugged. "Eh, I'd prefer to just kick people."

Irma smiled. "You know, I like ya Jade. You seem pretty cool."

"Ditto." Jade smiled back and gave a friendly 'point' with her finger.

"Hello?" Cornelia seemed to get everyone's attention. "Am I the only sane person here? Were supposed to be some kind of magic guardians fighting evil? Does anyone not notice how insane that all sounds?"

"You want me to call Uncle over here to have him slap you again?" Jade warned, causing Cornelia to immediately flinch.

"What about that flower you grew when you looked at it?" Taranee recalled to Cornelia. "Or the water from Irma's glass, or that dragon Jade's Uncle drew in the air?"

As the group continued to talk; Uncle looked at the five girls and for a moment, he saw five different girls standing in their place. For some of them, he had pretty fond memories of, for one there was only sadness, but for the other… there was an intense amount of bitterness and resentment. This was enough for Uncle to give a deep sigh, whether it was out of nostalgia or grief, no one could say.

"Uncle, you've dealt with this kind of thing before?" Jackie asked him, referring to when Yan Lin said that he fought alongside her and the previous Guardians.

"Yes, Uncle has. How do you think I entered the world of magics?"

"Well… why didn't you tell us before?" Jackie asked.

Uncle sighed. "Uncle has… bad memories. Don't misunderstand, there have been plenty of good times back then; but… it just didn't end too well."

Jackie could tell that this was probably a sensitive subject for Uncle, so he chose not to press. Instead, he directed his attention towards Will who still looked at the Heart she wore, though with some reluctance, there was a bit of acceptance with the girl.

"So… what?" Will asked. "Do I just flip a switch or say some kind of magic word like 'Shazam' or… Ow!"

Uncle had dope-slapped Will before taking the Heart in his hand. "To call upon your power, you must feel it." Uncle explained. "As the bearer, only you can summon the power of the other Guardians. Look inside and feel the power that lies deep within."

"Okay… power within." Will took a deep sigh as she tried to concentrate. As she did, she actually did feel something, something that was deep inside her. And that seemed to translate into the Heart of Kandrakar that began to glow brightly it hovered in the air, along with Will's whole body as it began to pulse and send it out several magic energy waves.

Everyone looked in surprise and amazement, all save for Uncle who simply had a serious expression on his face. None however were more amazed than Will as she could feel the power flowing through her body. She didn't know why, but she knew exactly what to say, almost as if on instinct.

"**Guardians Unite!"**

The Heart shined brightly almost like the sun as Will was engulfed in a sphere of pink energy. Four other streams of elemental magic then flowed out to the other girls surrounding her. A white stream of energy shaped like the wind, encircled Hay Lin before her body was engulfed in a white magic sphere. A stream of magic fire flowed around Taranee before she was also engulfed in an orange magic sphere. Energized magic water flowed around Irma before her body was entrapped in a bright blue magic sphere. Finally, Cornelia was surrounded by a stream of green energy, which had leaves flowing around it, before her body was encompassed in a green energy sphere.

The five colored spheres however int eh air as ancient elemental magic symbols formed on the spheres while Jackie and his group looked in awe but had to quickly cover their eyes from a bright flash of light. When the light subsided, the five Guardians stood fully transformed.

Each of them now bore the appearances of not teenage girls, but young women. Almost as if they grew up right then and there. Each of them had similar outfits, but also different in a way. Will had a pink long-sleeved shirt with loose sleeves, a green skirt, blue and green striped tights, and dark purple boots. Taranee had a pink sleeveless shirt, exposing her midriff with pink wrist bands; dark green shorts with blue and green striped tights, and dark purple tennis shoes. Irma had a dark green long-sleeved shirt with an exposed midriff, with a purple skirt, blue and green striped tights, along with purple boots. Hay Lin wore a dark green sleeveless shirt, with an exposed midriff, along with purple dress and blue and green striped tights with purple shoes. Finally; Cornelia had a dark green long-sleeved shirt as well, with a long purple dress stretching down to her heels, green and blue tights and dark purple boots. But what really stood out were the butterfly-like wings that grew out of each of their backs.

"Whoa…" Jade voiced with wide eyes.

"Incredible…" Jackie uttered.

"Amazing." Tohru stated in surprise.

Uncle said nothing, but actually had something of a reminiscent smile on his face.

"That is… TOTALLY AWESOME!" Jade yelled at the top of her lungs. "I mean… yeah the outfits are a little girly; but that transformation sequence was so cool!"

As Jade continued to voice their excitement, the transformed Guardians looked at their new appearances with awe and amazement.

"Holy crap…" Will could not believe it.

"You know… somehow I cannot picture your Grandma wearing that." Irma said to Hay Lin who looked at her wings in excitement.

"What have we got behind us?"

"What have we got _in front _of us?" Cornelia looked to her chest and how much it's grown with a shallow laugh.

"Are those wings!? You guys got actual wings!" Jade looked at Will's wings as she tried to look back at them herself.

"They can't be wings. If they were wings, when we went like this we would…" Will then gave a startled scream as her wings flapped rapidly and she actually took to the sky. Hay Lin followed suit and shot straight into the air.

"They can fly?!" Jackie voiced in surprise.

"Of course." Uncle said. "In addition to their own elemental powers being magnified, their physical strength is also enhanced, and they are able to fly as well."

"Sweet!" Jade exclaimed with a wide grin, silently wishing she had the Rooster and Rabit Talismans with her so she could fly with them.

"This is simply amazing." Tohru looked towards the laughing and cheering Hay Lin as she flew up and around in every which way, while Will herself struggled to find some kind of balance in the air.

"This totally rocks!" Irma flapped her wings excitedly. "Taranee, you do something!"

Taranee tried to point her finger again like in the restaurant only to shoot a stronger flame that knocker her back as the fire shot upward and fell back down to create a small blaze on the ground, which Tohru was quick to put out with a fire extinguisher that Uncle insisted he'd bring.

"See, that's exactly why I don't like fire." Taranee pointed out as Tohru gave a sympatric smile while offering her a hand up like a gentleman, which he took.

"You do something now!" Jade excitedly ran towards Irma.

"You got it!" Irma thrusted both her hands forward to send a large water ball from her palms, the force knocking her down as well, while the water ball itself flew and curved in the air until it splashed all over Jackie. "Oops! Sorry!"

"It's fine. Don't worry about it." Jackie assured as he dried himself off with a towel that Uncle handed him.

"Alright, your turn Blondie." Jade looked to Cornelia.

"What do you expect _me _to do? There's no soil or plants here."

"You are _Earth _Guardian." Uncle stated as he walked towards her. "Earth means ground. Are you standing on ground right now? Yes? Then use your powers!"

"Okay! Okay! Just don't slap me again!" Cornelia backed up slightly as she waved her hand around the ground, only for a small tremor to occur as a large cactus-like plant shot out from underneath her to knock her off her feet. She looked down to see an earth-worm crawling onto her hand, resulting in her screaming and running away, only for the struggling Will to fall and land on top of her

"On I have never seen anything this cool!" Jade exclaimed. "Seriously, this is just so awesome, I don't have the words! Man, I wish I had those kind of powers!"

Jackie smiled as he walked towards the down Will and Cornelia and offered them both a hand up. Will smiled as she accepted and Cornelia did as well, though she seemed more irritated than grateful.

"I am glad to see you all enjoying yourselves…" Jackie said.

"Speak for yourself." Cornelia comically pouted.

"Yes… but perhaps it is best we take it slow, and it is getting late." Jackie gestured to the setting sun in the west.

Will took a breath to calm herself. "Yeah, I think we've destroyed enough of Heatherfield for today." She took out the Heart again and was quick to transform everyone back.

Jade looked around and saw one of the girls was missing. "Hey, where's Hay Lin?"

Tohru happened to look up at the sound of a girl screaming and opened up his arms to catch the falling Hay Lin bridal style. "I found her." Tohru said.

Hay Lin breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks, big guy." She hugged him around his neck.

* * *

_Meridian_

Caleb continued to tumble down the hillside with Cedric chasing down after him. But Caleb was quick to get himself back on his feet and use the momentum to push himself to run farther and gain some distance from Cedric. He happened to spot a blue swirling portal just at the bottom of the hill. He was so close, but Cedric was closing in fast.

* * *

_Earth – Heatherfield _

The group was about to walk away as the sun had set, but a small flash of blue light caught Jade's attention as she turned around and looked in surprise to see an open portal floating in the air.

"Uh… Jackie…?"

"Jade, it is time to go." Her uncle said as the group continued to walk.

"But seriously, you need to look at this!"

"Look at what?" Cornelia questioned as the rest of the group turned around and looked in shock to see what Jade was staring at.

"Aiya! A portal! Do not touch!" Uncle exclaimed.

All the girls looked in fear while Jackie, Jade, Tohru, and Uncle were on high alert. Suddenly, the young rebel named Caleb fell out of the portal and landed on a pile of trash to cushion his landing. But that wasn't the end of it.

"Look!" Irma shouted as the form of the snake-man named Cedric came out of the portal half-way. His imposing figure was enough to make the five newly christened Guardians scream and quake with fear.

Cedric looked as though he was about to grab the downed Caleb, that is until Jackie quickly ran in and jumped to deliver an airborne round-house to Cedric's face. The snake-man looked disoriented before he glared and hissed at Jackie who took a combative stance. He was about to attack him, before the snake-man gave a painful hiss after being hit by a beam of green magic.

Uncle had his blow-fish handy as he shot more blasts of Chi-Magic at Cedric, causing him a great deal of pain as the Chi-Magic actually seemed to burn him. He was also pelted by large barrels courtesy of Tohru who was quick to grab whatever large object he could find and throw it at Cedric to knock him back even further.

Jade wanted to get a hit in to as she tried to run and jump to deliver a kick to Cedric, but he saw it coming and grab Jade by the foot before throwing her at Uncle to knock him down. Jackie tried to hit Cedric again, but the snake-man blocked the attack with his large arm before throwing him out towards Tohru to knock him back a bit.

"Will! The necklace! Change us back!" Taranee shook Will who seemed paralyzed with fear. Cedric used this opportunity to cease Caleb who had just finished pulling himself out of the trash. "Now! Now!"

Will tried to shake off her fear just as the Chan Clan each recovered, and Cedric had grabbed Caleb. She quickly activated the necklace's power and Cedric looked in surprise to see the girls transform into their Guardian forms.

"Uh…Fire!" Will exclaimed.

"Me?" Taranee questioned, considering it was her element.

"Everybody!" Will shouted. All five of them looked like they were about to shoot off their magics, but it ended up causing chaos as their respective magics actually seemed to pour into the Heart of Kandrakar, causing pink lightning-like bolts to shoot everywhere.

"Uncle! What is happening!?" Jackie asked his uncle admits the chaos.

"Too much magic power!" Uncle exclaimed. "Too little control over it!"

Deciding retreat was the best option, Cedric began to pull himself back through the portal along with the struggling Caleb.

"Close it! Close the portal!" Caleb exclaimed as he was about to be dragged through, but Jade quickly ran toward him and grabbed Caleb's hand and tried to pull him back.

"I got you!" Jade however was about to be pulled in along with Caleb.

"Jade!" Jackie was quick to grab her legs and try and pull her back down along with Caleb. Tohru grabbed Jackie by the waist and tried to pull them out to, but it seemed Cedric was just as strong himself and pulled as hard as he could with Jackie and Tohru trying to pull Jade back with Jade trying hard not to let go of Caleb.

"Will! Close it! Close it!" Hay Lin shouted out of fear as they stopped using their magics.

"But… Jade and Jackie…!"

"Close it now!" Uncle exclaimed as he shot another Chi-Magic blast with his blowfish at Cedric through the portal, hitting the snake-man in the face to disorient him long enough for Jackie and Tohru to pull Jade out. However, she ended up losing her grip over Caleb and he fell back into the portal with Cedric just as Will shot a beam of pink energy from the Heart at the Portal to close it, but it was already too late.

"You lost him!" Cornelia exclaimed to Will. "That thing got him!"

* * *

_The Silver Dragon_

Everyone regrouped at the restaurant as the five newly christened, and probably traumatized, Guardians sat at a table to try find some kind of comfort while Jackie, Uncle, Jade, and Tohru talked with Yan Lin about what they just saw.

"I see…. What exactly did you see?" Yan Lin asked.

"He was about as tall as Jackie, brown hair, brown jacket." Jade described. "But I'm more paying attention as to what grabbed him! It was like some kind of man-snake!"

"Here… uh he looked like this." Hay Lin showed them the drawing of the snake-man she made.

"Huh, good drawing." Jade complemented as it actually seemed pretty detailed.

Yan Lin recognized the creature. "Lord Cedric."

"Lord?" Jackie questioned. "Does that mean he serves this Phobos character?"

"Yes, perhaps even as Phobos' right hand." Yan Lin answered. "Though he is not always in that form."

"A shape-shifter." Uncle's eyes widened slightly.

"Sensei?" Tohru asked.

"A very rare breed of magical creatures." Uncle explained. "They are capable of changing their appearance from that of a normal human to a humanoid animal."

"Talk about a wolf in sheep's clothing." Jade commented.

"Or in this case, a snake." Jackie added.

"I… I'm sorry…." Will stuttered. "It all happened so fast I didn't…" Yan Lin put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"You mustn't blame yourselves."

"I don't. I blame her!" Cornelia pointed to Will. "She totally blew it!"

"Hey! I didn't see you trying to help!" Jade glared at Cornelia. "At least Will did something! _You _were screaming and crying like a little baby!"

"Oh, you do _not _wanna go there!" Cornelia warned.

"What are you gonna do? Get me all dirty?" Jade challenged.

"That is enough!" Jackie said firmly, getting all the girls' attention. "No one is to blame for what happened! We were all taken by surprise and getting into an argument won't change what happened."

This seemed to calm all of them down, though Jade and Cornelia continued to glare at each other. Will still seemed a bit upset, but Jackie still put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"We will figure this out." He told her. "You are not alone in this."

"That is right." Yan Lin confirmed. "You only have each other."

"We must steel ourselves." Uncle said as he looked out the restaurant's window. "A new evil has risen, and if we are to prevail, we must stand together. For we are all that stands between our world and a future filled with darkness."

"Gee no pressure or anything." Irma commented.

"Welcome to our world." Jade said.

**Done. **

**And so, begins the adventures of Jackie Chan and W.I.T.C.H. **

**The Chan Clan is going to be helping the newly christened Guardians to master their newfound powers as well as learn some Kung Fu and helping them in their quest to battle against Phobos. It also seems that Daolong Wong has sided with Phobos as well, which should make things interesting.**

**(Oh and Uncle's full name is Jin Chan. I know in the cannon Jackie Chan Adventures, his full name is never given as he's always credited as 'Uncle', but in my story he has a past history with the former Guardians, so its not like Yan Lin is actually going to call him 'Uncle', so I decided to give him a name. Don't worry, everyone else will still call him Uncle, even Will and the others.) **

**Again, this story will follow the same plotline from Season 1 of W.I.T.C.H. with elements from Jackie Chan Adventures Season 3. However, there will be NO Talisman-powered animals here; Will and the others have only just started their job as Guardians and will be fighting a tyrannical prince with magic powers, so a world-tour filled with magically powered animals might be overwhelming for them. The Talismans themselves will remain intact and will come into play later on in my story as well and we will be seeing other characters and elements from Jackie Chan Adventures in this story as well as my own original twists so I'm not basically repeating the W.I.T.C.H. tv series with new characters. **

**I hope you all enjoy this story as much as I will enjoy writing it. I will be back soon with the next chapter. Until then, peace out. **


	2. It Resumes

**Hi everyone, welcome back! I know this seems a bit quick for an update as I usually update my other stories before coming back. However, since this is not only a brand-new fic for me, but also part 2 of the premiere, I thought I'd make an exception. So then, without further delay, let us continue with J-WITCH**

**It Resumes**

The tyrannical Prince Phobos sat on his throne with the Dark Chi wizard, Daolon Wong standing at the side of the stairs leading up to the black throne. They both watched as the massive humanoid serpent named Cedric enter the throne room.

"Report." Phobos told him.

Cedric transformed into his humanoid form as he kneeled to Phobos. "We have the rebel leader. But I was ambushed at the portal by the Guardians."

"The guardians are old women, Cedric." Phobos said.

"Oh, not so, my prince." Cedric replied. "They are now young girls."

Phobos' eyes widened as he gazed down to Wong. "So, it would seem you were correct."

"Indeed." Daolon Wong nodded. "I told you I had sensed a pulse from the Heart of Kandrakar, even across the veil. When a pulse of pure magic that strong is felt across worlds, it can only mean the torch has been passed to a new generation."

"And they were not alone." Cedric said, getting both their attention. "A pair of warriors were by their side as well, in addition some kind of wizard."

"What sort of wizard?" Wong asked with a raised eyebrow.

Cedric lifted the sleeve of his robe to reveal his right arm with a burn mark across it. "Due to my own abilities as a serpent, I can heal from most injuries rather easily. However, this mark has taken longer than normal."

Wong approached Cedric and inspected the wound. He held his left hand as the palm actually had a fanged mouth that opened up, a faint green wisp of smoke emanated from the wound as Wong narrowed his eyes.

"This is good Chi Magic. It would seem a powerful Chi Wizard has allied with this new generation of Guardians as well." Wong stated.

Phobos placed a hand on his chin. "So, these new Guardians appear to be mentored by this wizard and his warrior companions." He theorized. "This could complicate the search for my sister. Finding her is essential if I am to maintain my power over Meridian."

All three of the villains turned to see Caleb being dragged in chains into the throne room by a large blue hulking individual who bowed once he set down near the throne, followed by a pair of guards.

"The trouble-maker Prince Phobos."

"Thank you Vathek." The Prince turned his attention to Caleb who glared at him. "You seem rather young to be leading a rebellion, far too young for you to waste your life on such a meaningless pursuit. However, that need not be the case. I am willing to overlook your transgressions, and all you need do is reveal to me the location of the other rebels. Do this, and I shall grant you a full pardon. So, what do you say? I'm making you a rather generous offer."

"You can take your pardon and blow it out your robe!" Caleb exclaimed. "You'll get nothing from me!"

Phobos glared at that comment. "Wong."

The Dark Chi wizard pulled out a small twisted wooden staff with a blackish-indigo orb embedded into it as he began to recite a dark magic chant and a dark blue light shot from it to envelop Caleb.

"Tell me your secrets." Wong said in his spell as Caleb was telekinetically lifted into the air, but the youth struggled against the dark magic trying to invade his psyche. Wong glared as he stopped his spell and Caleb fell onto the floor.

"For one so young, his will is iron-clad. It will take some time before I can extract any useful information." Wong informed Phobos.

"Very well. Escort him to the oubliette, perhaps the despair will soften him up."

As per Phobos' command, Vathek and the guards dragged Caleb out of the throne room.

* * *

_Earth – Heatherfield_

Despite it only being a day since their arrival in Heatherfield, the Chan Clan was already able to find a decent sized apartment for all of them. Captain Black helped pull some strings so that they could get something very nice. It was a pretty spacious with a large living area with a connected kitchen; and two separate bathrooms. There were three bedrooms as well. Jade would get one to herself, as would Jackie. Tohru and Uncle had to share one, but that was alright. There was furniture already placed there, including a television. They'd still have to buy some food, but that be fine.

Just below the apartment however was an empty space that would soon serve as the newest location of Uncle's Rare Finds. Tohru and Uncle were both on the phone with Captain Black about moving all of the merchandise from the store in San Francisco, with Uncle making certain to handle all the magic books and items with absolute care.

"One more thing. Do _not_ read spells! Uncle does not want frogs in antiques!" Uncle said over the phone.

As they did, Jade sat on a coach thinking about what went down yesterday. "So, Jackie, what do you think about all this? Kinda cool that your training superheroes!"

Jackie gave a small sigh as he sat down next to his niece. "Jade, this isn't a game. These girls are becoming involved in some sort of magical war, battling forces they can barely understand.

"And that's why we're here, right?" Jade asked. "I mean, compared to Shendu and his family, this Phobos guy should be a real cake-walk. Plus, this is _you _we're talking about! Look how well you trained me! I'm sure you can have these guys cranking out magic Kung Fu in no time!" She excitedly got off the coach and made several chops and kicks.

"Jade, these girls are not like you." Jackie tried to explain. "This is all beyond new to them, they're scared."

Jade's excitement faded. "Yeah, I could kinda see that. But… I think they're gonna do okay."

"What makes you say that?" Jackie asked.

"Cause, they got you to teach them." Jade said. Jackie couldn't help but smile at that as Jade continued. "I could probably give them a few pointers to, not to mention they got Tohru who's about as strong and nice as they come, heck even Uncle might be able to help."

Jackie honestly felt very proud of Jade at that moment. It was no secret that she has always been impulsive, but she was right. These girls, despite being scared, were not alone in this. Not if any of them had anything to say about it.

* * *

_Sheffield Institute_

At the same, the five girls in question were eating lunch in the quad outside, talking about what they saw yesterday as well.

"That poor boy. I wonder who he was." Will said.

"I wonder what that thing did to him." Hay Lin said.

"It's what it could have done to us that worries me." Taranee stated. "I mean, that's what were supposed to fight with our so-called powers?"

"I'm sorry, but I'm far too pretty to end up as snake crap." Cornelia pointed out.

"Good thing Jackie was there, I mean seriously, did you see him?" Irma recalled. "He kicked that thing right in its face!"

"Oh, and that Tohru guy!" Hay Lin pointed out. "You see how big that kinda stuff he threw at it?"

"I definitely wouldn't wanna challenge him to an arm-wrestling match, that's for sure." Will said.

"I probably wouldn't mess the old guy either" Taranee said. "I mean, he's a real-life wizard!"

"That and he slapped Cornelia on the head." Irma snickered, causing the other girls to laugh expect Cornelia herself who merely pouted.

"Jade seems pretty cool to." Will said. "From the sound of it, she's actually _used _to all this magic stuff. Kinda nice to know that we're not the only ones stuck with this." She looked into her backpack to see the Heart of Kandrakar inside, still finding it difficult to believe that all that power came from something so small. At the same time, she also can't help but wonder what happened to that boy they saw yesterday.

* * *

_Meridian – Phobos' Castle_

Caleb was still in chains as he was being escorted by several guards, Vathek included, underground toward the dungeon. But he wasn't about to make it easy for them. He shoved his elbow into the guard on his right and used the sudden surprise to slide underneath the guard holding his chains and shove up both his feet into the chest of the guard in front of him before jumping up and over the guard he slid under, landing on his head to knock him down.

He dropped and rolled out of the way to avoid an axe-slice from another guard, only to jumped onto by a Lurden and later several others. Within minutes, Caleb had been detained.

* * *

Caleb was placed in a small cage that was being lowered down into a deep pit. Once he reached the bottom, the floor in the cage opened and he fell onto the ground as the cage began to rise up.

"Let's see how eternity in the oubliette suits you, traitor." Vathek said to Caleb before slipping a key into a half-loaf of bread and dropped the bread into the pit before walking away with the rest of the guards.

Caleb reached for the bread, but a pair of slimy green hands also reached for it. Caleb pulled the wrists of the hands to toss the creature the hands belonged to; revealing a small, green-skinned, goblin-like, creature.

"Blunk not steal! Trade!" The creature named Blunk pulled out a dead rat. "Rat for bread? Good deal, yes?"

"Blunk?" Caleb recognized the name. "You're that smuggler!"

"Businessman." Blunk corrected as he held the bread in his hands.

"I didn't fight for freedom this long to die in a hole with a talking pickle!" Caleb stated as he looked around at his new surroundings.

"Pickle?" Blunk questioned.

Caleb looked up the walls as he spoke his thoughts aloud. "Saw the new Guardians. It looks like a long wait to get rescued. I'll have to get out of here myself."

Blunk picked up a skull. "Same thing he said. He mostly out of here, aren't you?" He laughed as he used the skull like a puppet. "Yes I am."

Caleb tried to actually climb the wall. "I've been in tougher places than this. Okay… not smellier places…"

"Too high. Never make it." Blunk said as he began to eat the bread.

"Have you even tried….!" The young rebel yelled as he slipped and fell back down.

"Thirty-seven hundred times." The little creature answered before biting down on something hard and spat it out, revealing it to be the key as it landed near Caleb. Blunk then threw away the loaf of bread.

"Keep it." Caleb said as he used the key to unlock his chains. "I don't plan to still be here for dinner."

* * *

_Phobos' Throne_

"Cedric, you are certain you saw the faces of these new Guardians?" The prince asked his right-hand, still in his humanoid form.

"Yes, my prince." He confirmed.

"Then find the one who bears the Heart of Kandrakar and bring her to me."

"As you wish."

* * *

_Earth_

School was over as Will, Cornelia, Taranee, Hay Lin, and Irma walked along the sidewalk of the streets. Hay Lin seemed pretty more chipper than usual.

"So, when do we go? Tonight?"

"Whoa, slow down Tinker Bell." Cornelia told her. "Tomorrow's picture day, remember? Maybe we can rescue this rebel leader _after, _right?"

Taranee seemed to agree. "Call me a wimp, but in the school yearbook, I'd still like to have a face."

"Forget picture day." Irma stated. "I don't care what I look like. I care about who I am. Let's go kick some evil butt!"

"I wanna go, but I don't know how much help we're gonna be by soaking him and covering him with garbage." Will said. "Let's just talk with Jackie and everyone before we do anything crazy. Taranee, don't you normally go this way?"

"My dad's cooking tonight. I'm eating at Hay Lin's place."

"So am I." Cornelia said.

"Same here." Irma said. "You wanna come Will?"

"Eh, maybe later." Will told them.

"Alright, see you tomorrow." Taranee waved off as the four girls turned around and walked away.

As Will saw them leave, there was a tinge of sadness inside her chest. A part of her wanted to go with them, but it still felt a little awkward. Despite sharing the same experience as yesterday, she still felt a bit of an outsider. So, with a sigh she decided to head down an alleyway to take a shortcut.

Further down the street, Jade was skating along the sidewalk, using a hockey-stick to play around with a puck when she saw Will walking down the alleyway.

"Hey Will!" Jade called to her.

The red-haired girl heard her name being called and was about to turn around, when suddenly a pair of hands grabbed her with one clasping over her mouth to prevent her from screaming as she was pulled into the alleyway.

Jade's eyes widened before she skated into alley. Once she got there, she looked in surprise to an open portal with Will's backpack laying on the ground in front of it. Jade considered reaching for her cell phone and calling Jackie, but the longer she waited, the more danger Will was in. Besides, considering all the tough spots she was in, she could probably find Will and get out before the bad guys did anything. So, she jumped into the portal after her.

However, right as she did, she failed to notice a shocked Taranee looking in the direction Jade leapt: her destination being another realm.

* * *

_Silver Dragon_

"Okay, so how many adventures have you guys all been on?" Hay Lin asked Jackie, Uncle, and Tohru excitedly as she sat down with them at a table, along with Cornelia and Hay Lin. "Have you been on them with Grandma before? How many bad guys did you beat up?" She kept asking as Yan Lin brought out some tea for everyone.

"Please slow down." Jackie said in a humble tone. "I've been on so many adventures, I've lost count."

"So, are you a wizard to, Jackie?" Irma asked.

"No, only Uncle and Tohru use magic." Jackie answered before being slapped by Uncle. "OW!"

"Tohru is only an apprentice! He has yet to utilize spells in combat!" Uncle stated. "One more thing, where is Jade?"

"She went out for some street-hockey. At least that's what she said." Tohru pointed out.

"Well where's Taranee?" Cornelia asked. "Wasn't she right behind us."

Almost on cue, the bespectacled girl in question came running in through the front door, holding Will's backpack. She was out of breath having ran all the way.

"Whoa you just got back from a marathon or something?" Irma asked.

"Will's backpack…!" Taranee said in-between her breaths. "I found it right by a portal. I… I think she was kidnapped by that snake thing from before!"

"What?!" Jackie questioned as everyone looked in surprise.

"And… I saw Jade go in after her!"

"Jade went in!?" Tohru questioned.

"Aiya!" Uncle exclaimed.

Jackie slapped his hand against his face. "Jade, not again!"

"Again?!" Cornelia questioned.

"She has done this sort of thing before." Jackie said. "Always getting herself into trouble, despite my insistence otherwise."

"Is the Heart of Kandrakar still in Will's backpack?" Yan Lin asked.

"Uh… yeah... I think so." Taranne reached in and pulled out the crystal in question.

"That could be the reason Will was kidnapped." Yan Lin said. "Phobos seeks power, and if he could obtain the power of the Heart, his own power would double, perhaps even triple."

"So it's a good thing he doesn't have it? Right?" Cornelia asked a little nervously, trying not to sound insensitive.

"Forget the crystal!" Irma exclaimed. "Our friends are stuck in another dimension! What are we waiting for?! Let's Guardian-up and…OW!" Uncle had slapped her on the forehead.

"You cannot use Guardian powers!" Uncle exclaimed. "Will is bearer of the Heart, so only _she _can use it!"

"Not even you could use it Sensei?" Tohru asked. "Despite being a Chi-Wizard."

"Uncle is a Chi-Wizard, never a Guardian! I could never access its power!" Uncle stated.

Jackie sighed. "Then we'll have to go and get them. Taranee, do you know where the portal is? Perhaps it's still open."

"Yeah… yeah I know where it is." She nodded.

"Good, then you will lead me, Uncle, and Tohru there." Jackie said. "We will find Will and Jade and bring them back."

"Wait… what about us?" Hay Lin asked. "We can't just sit here!"

"Yeah one of our friends was kidnapped and another is risking her life to save the other!" Irma stated.

Taranee, despite still being scared, was in agreement. "I want to come to. We might not have Guardian powers, but if we get Will the crystal, we should be able to use them, right?"

"We must go! There is no time to dilly-dally!" Uncle stated as he stood up.

"Wait… hold on!" Cornelia stopped everyone. "This is crazy! You guys are seriously going to jump into some evil magic world to save some people we hardly know!"

"Cornelia, their names are Will and Jade and they're in horrible danger!" Irma told her.

"Yeah, last year, I was the new girl." Taranee added.

"If you do not want to come Cornelia, you don't have to." Jackie said. Despite Jackie being honest, Cornelia gave way to her friends' peer pressure.

"Okay! I'll come! Guilt me, why don't you!?"

"What about you Grandma? You coming to?" Hay Lin asked her Grandmother.

"Unfortunately, I can't." She said with reluctance. "I would only be in the way."

"But you are former Guardian, aren't you?" Tohru asked.

"Yes, however once the Heart was passed onto Will and the others, any connection I may have had was severed. Any magic I use drains my own life force." Yan Lin explained. "If I went, I'd only be a liability. I am sorry."

Jackie seemed to get it. "Very well, we will be back."

"Why are we standing around!?" Uncle exclaimed as he was already out the door. "By time we finish conversation, Will and Jade will be enveloped by Forces of Darkness! Hurry!"

With that; Taranee, still holding the Heart of Kandrakar, led Jackie, Irma, Tohru, Cornelia, Uncle, and Hay Lin in the direction of the portal she saw; while Yan Lin had a concerned expression on her face. All she could do was hope for their safe return.

* * *

_Meridian – Phobos Throne_

Phobos and Wong both watched as Cedric, along with a pair of guards, enter the large chambers, along with the captive Will with both her hands tied behind her back and a thick cloth tied over her mouth. She was dragged in and forced onto her knees just before the throne.

"The bearer of the Heart, Prince Phobos." Cedric presented with a hiss.

The bound and gagged Will looked up in fear towards Phobos. Despite appearing as a normal human, there was something very intimidating about him. Looking into his eyes was almost like looking into an empty pit.

"Release her bonds." Phobos ordered as the two guards came by to untie her hands and remove her gag. "I apologize for such a rough treatment, my dear." Phobos tried to put on a sincere act, but that didn't make Will any less afraid.

"Please… please just let me go…" She shook with fear.

"I will, provided you give me the Heart of Kandrakar." Phobos told her. "Hand me the crystal, and I promise you will be returned home safely."

"But…I don't have it." Will stuttered as Phobos narrowed his eyes. "I swear… I don't have it! I don't know where it is!"

"Wong?"

Once Phobos said his name, the Dark Chi Wizard in question lifted his specter and enveloped Will in a dark blue light, which vanished shortly after.

"She speaks the truth, my Prince." Wong said. "She does not possess the Heart, nor does she know its location? Perhaps it was lost in-between worlds." He glanced smugly at Cedric who glared in response.

"Well, then I guess she's free to go!"

This came from Jade as she swung down from the ceiling on a vine of thorns before slamming her feet, still with her skates on, right into Cedric's face to knock him down before smacking Wong across his face with her hockey stick. She used this sudden surprise to quickly skate and slide to kick the two guards down.

"Jade?! How did you…?!"

"Talk later! Let's go!" Jade took Will's hand and was about to run out until she was enveloped in a dark yellow light and telekinetically pulled towards Phobos who rose from his throne.

"Jade!" Will was about to try and help, but Cedric had already recovered and ensnared her with his tail.

"Who is this?" Phobos questioned as Jade struggled in his magical grip. "Another Guardian?"

"I cannot sense the Heart's power emanating from her." Wong said as he tried to feel the crystal's magic. "So, she is not a Guardian."

"She was with them when I was ambushed at the portal." Cedric reported.

Phobos brought Jade closer. "I'm impressed someone so young was able to infiltrate my castle without setting off the alarm."

"You think you're the only bad guy I've seen, pal? Compared to them, you're pretty small time." Jade cracked.

"You would do well to watch your tone, child." Phobos warned.

Jade gave her titular scoff. "Please. I've been face-to-face with dragons and demons; an emo pretty boy in a fancy bathrobe doesn't scare me." Right when she said that, Phobos had flung her to the pillar along the wall, causing her to groan in pain as she slid down.

"Jade! Stop it!" Will begged, only to moan as Cedric squeezed her even tighter.

"Take them both the oubliette with the rebel leader." Phobos ordered. "I do not tolerate defiance."

The guards did as their prince requested as they picked up the downed Jade along with Will and escorted them out of the chamber.

* * *

_Earth_

Taranee had led the group of fighters and newly christened Guardians to the portal she found in the alleyway, the one she saw Jade jump into after Will was grabbed.

"Will and Jade are on the other side of that?" Hay Lin asked nervously.

"Sensei, once we go into the portal, how will we know where to find Jade and Will?" Tohru asked.

"Once we enter Meridian, the Heart of Kandrakar will seek its owner." Uncle responded. "The crystal will lead us to Will, and by extension Jade."

"I will go first and check for any danger." Jackie said. "Once I say it is clear, you will all follow in behind me." Jackie walked into the portal.

"Is he going to be okay?" Irma asked with concern.

"He's been through stuff like this before, he'll be fine." Tohru responded.

Jackie's head popped out of the portal a few seconds later. "There is a small drop below here, but otherwise it appears to be safe." He went back in as the others began to follow suit.

"I'm not going in first." Cornelia said right as Uncle, Taranee, Hay Lin, and Tohru entered the portal. "But if I'm last, I'll just chicken out!"

"Well I won't, I'll go last." Irma said.

"Then you'll have to push me." Cornelia told her.

"Okay." Irma smirked as she pushed Cornelia into the portal before jumping in herself.

* * *

_Meridian_

Cornelia screamed as she fell into the pond and came out with an octopus-like creature on her head. "Gross! Gross! Gross!"

Irma jumped in and landed with a slash next to Cornelia. "Wow! That really wakes up your underwear!"

"Is everyone accounted for?" Jackie asked to the whole group.

"Here!" Hay Lin raised her hand.

"Present." Taranee said.

"Right here." Irma nodded.

"Uncle is here." The old man said with Tohru nodding.

"So, this is Meridian?" Tohru looked around.

The dark and grim setting of this magical world made each of the four girls nervous. Jackie and Tohru, however seemed to steel themselves, this was not the time to be scared. Uncle seemed unphased, however.

"Uncle, where do we go from here?" Jackie asked.

"We must follow the Heart of Kandrakar." Uncle said as Taranee took the Heart out again, and it pulled itself toward the dark castle that laid far out in front of them, right as a bolt of lightning flashed around it for dramatic purposes.

"Uh… I think we found Sauron's vacation home." Irma joked a bit to try and lighten the dark mood they were all probably feeling right now.

"You're saying Will and Jade have been taken there?" Cornelia questioned.

"You could always jump back into the magic swirling portal if you want." Hay Lin said. Cornelia gave a scowl in response.

"Everyone, stay close." Jackie told the group. "Let's hurry." The group then began to make their way towards Phobos' castle.

* * *

_Oubliette _

"I'm gonna have to trust you." Caleb told Blunk.

"Trust Blunk. Yes!"

Caleb held the chains he was cuffed to previously. "Put your foot, or hoof or whatever it is in here." Blunk did as he said as Caleb continued. "When I count to three, jump as high as you can. I'm gonna throw you out and…

"One… two…!"

"Listen!" Caleb exclaimed. "You're gonna find a rope and lower it."

"Rope. Yes. Good plan!"

"No, terrible plan." Caleb knew this was probably not gonna work, but he was out of options. "But even if you betray me, at least it'll smell better down here."

Blunk frowned as Caleb readied the chains.

"One… Two… THREE!" Caleb threw the chains up as Blunk jumped. The green creature screamed as he was flung all the way toward the top and he grabbed the ledge. However, he lost his grip on the ledge and fell back down onto Caleb and bounced off him before landing on the floor.

"Sorry, let's try again."

Before they could however, the two looked up once they heard the cage being lowered down. "That's right, Guardian of the Veil. You're going down there, with the rebel leader." Vathek said as the cage was lowered down. The cage opened as both Will and Jade fell out and landed on Caleb before the cage was pulled back up.

Both girls got up to see Caleb standing up as well. "Wait… you're that guy from yesterday!" Will recognized him.

"You're not one of the Guardians I saw. Where's your older sister?"

"Oh, she's a Guardian alright. Who are you, pal?" Jade questioned.

"My name is Caleb, I'm the leader of the rebellion." He answered.

"Wait… _you're _the rebel leader? What are you rebelling against? Diaper rash?" Will questioned.

"Hey girly-girl, I'm fifteen!"

"You're fifteen?!" Jade questioned. "You look like you're in your twenties for crying out loud! You must really pack your protein meals here."

Caleb shook his head. "Never mind that, just activate the crystal and fly us out of here."

"Uh… we don't exactly have it." Jade said, causing Caleb to look in disbelief.

"What do you mean you don't have it?!"

"Hey, give me a break, will ya?!" Will exclaimed. "Just yesterday, I was a normal girl who found out I have some kind of magic powers. Now I've been kidnapped, dragged through a magic portal, tied up, interrogated by a psychopathic prince, and dropped into the bottom of a hole! Not exactly used to this kind of stuff!"

Blunk walked toward them. "Why catch them? Not catch Blunk?"

Will screamed as she hid behind Caleb, while Jade looked a bit confused. "Uh… what is that? Some kind of gremlin?"

"Not gremlin, passling!" Blunk stated. "We trade stuff." He held out the chains Caleb previously had to Jade. "Trade chains for hoodie. Good deal, yes?"

"Eh, now thanks." Jade shook her head.

Caleb sighed. "Great. I need a rope, some kind of weapon, but what do I get? Some new Guardian who forgot the source of her own power, and a little shrimp with attitude."

Jade choose to ignore that comment. "Eh don't worry. Jackie will rescue us."

"Jackie?" Caleb questioned.

"Her uncle." Will said before looking toward Jade. "And Jade, no offense to Jackie, but were kinda stuck in a hole, in an evil castle, in another dimension. The odds of him getting us out of here is pretty slim."

Jade scoffed. "I got stuck in another dimension before, filled seven super-powered, man-eating demons. I'm sure he'll be around, then he can kick Phobos' butt and we'll be out of here like that!"

"Kick Phobos' butt?" Caleb questioned. "I doubt that. You don't know Phobos. He's enslaved and ruled over Meridian for over a decade. We've been fighting non-stop and barley made a dent. I don't see what good one uncle is gonna do."

Jade smirked. "I might not know this Phobos guy, but he doesn't know Jackie Chan."

* * *

Jackie Chan, along with Uncle, Tohru, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin had made it closer toward the castle, they were right at the edge of the moat surrounding the dark fortress. Hay Lin looked into the water and saw something moving.

"Oh, fishes." This proved to be incorrect as a massive serpent-like monster came out of it. Hay Lin screamed as it was about to bite down onto her, but Tohru quickly ran in front of it and held its jaws back with pure strength. This kept it busy long enough for Uncle to blast it with Chi-magic from his blowfish, to knock it back into the water.

"Thanks guys." Hay Lin smiled as Tohru helped her up.

"Swimming is out of the question." Jackie stated.

"Then how are we gonna get across?" Taranee asked.

"Well, I sort of have an idea." Cornelia said as the other girls, even Jackie, looked in surprise. "Oh, don't look so surprised."

Cornelia climbed on top of a large thorny root and outstretched her hand to concentrate her powers. She was able to pull a vine from a small outpost near the bottom of the castle. She smiled at what she accomplished as everyone else seemed impressed.

"Nicely done, Cornelia." Jackie nodded.

"Now let's get swinging!" Irma stated.

"Aiya! Do I look like Tarzan?! I am too old to swing from vines!" Uncle protested.

"Oh, come on!" Cornelia moaned.

"All of us together are too heavy for this single vine to support." Jackie said. "We'll have to go in groups. Tohru, take Uncle and Hay Lin. Cornelia, Irma, and Taranee are with me."

Tohru grabbed onto the vine first as Uncle and Hay Lin both hung onto Tohru himself. He took a running start before jumping and swinging, for some reason, Tohru gave a 'George of the jungle-cry' as he swung. When he reached the outpost, he grabbed the ledge with his right hand and pulled himself along with Hay Lin and Uncle.

"See, that wasn't so bad was it?" Hay Lin asked Uncle, who merely looked away.

Tohru sent the vine back to Jackie as he grabbed onto it; followed by Taranee, Irma, and Cornelia. "Everyone, hang on tight." Jackie said before the four of them swung from the ledge toward the outpost. Thought they made it, Cornelia, being at the bottom, accidentally landed face-first into the brick wall.

Irma and Taranee were already up as Jackie helped Cornelia get up as well. However, right as the group walked into the castle, they failed to notice something was watching them. A massive cyclops that appeared to be made entirely out of rock looked down from the wall he was embedded into and saw them enter.

* * *

_Throne Room_

Wong held out both his hands towards the floor as a magical projection of what the monster outside was seeing was shown to him, as well as Phobos and Cedric. Wong's eyes shot open as he felt a familiar presence.

"The Heart of Kandrakar is here, along with the other Guardians and a few of their allies." Wong said.

"Excellent." Phobos smiled. "Those two girls served their part as the bait. Now for the trap."

Cedric hissed before transforming into his massive serpent-like form. "It's lunch time."

* * *

This time, Jackie held the Heart of Kandrakar as he took point along with Uncle, letting the crystal lead them toward wherever Will and Jade were. Tohru hung in the back with the four girls in the center. They walked through the darkened tunnels with the crystal being the only illumination for them.

"Okay, so once we find Will and Jade, then what?" Taranee wondered.

"We leave, obviously!" Cornelia stated. "This place is too gross and scary to stay for any extended period of time."

"What if we run into that snake-man thing again?" Irma asked. "We'll have to fight, won't we?"

"Snake-man not important." Uncle stated. "Finding Jade and Will _is." _

"Uncle is right." Jackie agreed. "Once we find them, we leave. I'd rather we not stay in this place longer than we have to."

"No argument here." Taranee nodded.

"But how much further till we find them?" Tohru asked.

"The Heart senses Will's presence. We are close." Uncle observed how the Heart was glowing as the group exited the tunnels and entered the dungeon area. Once they entered, the crystal pulled even harder as Jackie followed it and was led toward a pit.

"Jade!" Uncle called down.

"Will!" Hay Lin called as well.

"Uncle Jackie!" Jade called back from the bottom of the pit as she, Will, Caleb, and Blunk looked up to see the group.

"Hay Lin! We're down here!" Will called with a wide grin, never being so happy to hear some familiar voices.

"Jackie, release the Heart." Uncle told his nephew, who let go of the crystal and let it fall into the pit and toward Will.

"Watch this. This is so cool." Jade told Caleb, having a good idea what was gonna happen next.

"**Guardians Unite!" **

Will was enveloped in a pink flash of light that shined straight upward to envelop the other girls as all five of them had transformed into their Guardian forms. Caleb looked in surprise.

"Whoa." He breathed in awe.

"Toldya." Jade smirked toward him.

"Grab on!" Will told Jade and Caleb as they both held onto her body. Using her wings as well as her enhanced strength, she took flight with both of them, along with Blunk who leapt onto her and caught her legs.

She was able to fly up in no time where she was warmly greeted by everyone. "You guys really came!" Will said elated. "You really are my friends."

Jackie put a hand on her shoulder. "I told you would not be alone." Will smiled back as Jackie turned to his niece. "Jade, are you alright?"

"Please that pretty boy looser couldn't give a little kid nightmares." Jade scoffed, though she was inwardly glad Jackie helped find her.

"Who is this?" Jackie asked, referring to Caleb.

"The rebel leader, believe it or not." Jade responded.

"You're the rebel leader?" Cornelia asked him. _"He's actually kinda cute." _She thought.

"I am. And you are the new Guardians. And the rest of you?" Caleb asked.

"I am Jackie Chan. This is my Uncle, and Tohru."

"A pleasure." Tohru bowed his head while Uncle just waved his hand.

"Look, we're all happy to see each other, but how about we save the greetings for _after _we get out of here?" Irma said.

"That is a good idea." Jackie said.

"Take Blunk!" The passling revealed himself. "Blunk knows tunnel. Secret way out."

"Awe, who's this little cutie?" Hay Lin gushed.

"Careful Hay Lin, you don't know where that thing's been." Will said.

"And what exactly… is that?" Jackie asked, referring to the creature.

"Something called a passling." Jade answered.

"I've heard of them in my readings." Tohru said. "Magical creatures that specialize in trading."

"So were gonna rely on a walking talking toad to get us out of here?" Irma asked.

"Blunk not toad! Blunk passling! Blunk not want to stay in castle, I know way out." Blunk stated.

"The day I trust a passling is the day I die! You can't trust… OW!" Caleb's protests were cut off by Uncle delivering a dope-slap to his head.

"Has rebel leader forgotten where he was?!" Uncle questioned. "We are inside evil castle ruled by evil prince! Does rebel leader wish to escape? Yes? THEN WE FOLLOW PASSLING AND REBEL DOES NOT QUESTION!"

Caleb was rendered silent before stepping aside.

"I really like your uncle, Jade." Irma whispered to her.

"Hell hath no fury like a pissed off Uncle." Jade smirked.

"Well if we are all agreed, let us go." Jackie said. "Eh… Blunk was it? Lead the way."

"Yes trust Blunk. Blunk lead you all out of castle." The passling took the lead and the group was about to follow, that is until Uncle stopped in his tracks.

"Aiya…!" He uttered as he felt a chill go down his spine, catching Tohru's attention.

"Sensei, what is it?"

"Uncle has… the willies!"

That statement confused most of the group before their attention was caught by a large plum of blue smoke that appeared from the other side of the dungeon, once the smoke cleared, it revealed the huge snake-man known as Cedric and the dark Chi-Wizard Daolon Wong.

"Leaving so soon." Cedric hissed as all five girls were taken aback, besides Jade who glared while Jackie, Caleb, and Tohru took combative stances, even Uncle pulled out a blowfish.

"So, you are the new Guardians of the Veil." Wong said to the girls. "Soon to be the last, for none of you are leaving here alive. **Gan! Ren! Chui!" **Wong held up his scepter and shot out three plums of dark smoke that took the form of three humanoids wearing black clothes, dark orange skin with glowing blue marks on their bodies. One was bald while the other two had dark red hair. All three of them had pitch-black eyes as they each wielded a staff, a hammer, and a massive shuriken respectively.

"Whoa! Where did those guys come from?!" Hay Lin exclaimed in shock.

"They are warriors made of Dark Chi!" Uncle said before he gasped and looked toward Wong. "You are a Chi-Wizard!" Wong gave a sinister smile in response.

"Oh, they are but the least of your worries." Cedric sneered with a hiss, right before over two dozen guards and Lurden soldiers poured into the dungeon via the stairs along the walls or descending on the chains from the ceiling.

Within seconds the group of Guardians, warriors, and wizards were surrounded by their enemies in large numbers.

"Uh… why do I have the feeling these guys were expecting us?" Taranee gulped.

Jackie sighed. "Bad day."

"Attack!" Cedric ordered as the horde of enemies charged towards the group. The five Guardians took flight, with Will grabbing Jade, and Hay Lin grabbing Blunk.

Tohru charged back as he ran and used his massive hands to sweep away several Lurdens. Caleb ran towards a guard that tried to swing his sword down on him, but Caleb ducked and grabbed the guard by his arms and threw him back into a group of guards. Caleb picked up the downed sword and used it to block an axe-strike from another guard.

Jackie ran to avoid the charging guards and Lurdens before running straight towards the wall and actually ran up the wall, much to the guards' surprise. He jumped down and landed in the middle with his hands before sticking out his feet and spinning them like a helicopter blade to knock them all back. Jackie however had little time to rest as he just barley jumped back to avoid a hammer strike from the Dark Chi Warrior named Chui.

Jackie picked up two downed shields from the guards he just took down and used them to block more hammers swings from Chui.

Uncle took out a blowfish in one hand and a dried-up lizard in the other. _"Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao." _He recited his spell as he blasted several stun-spells at the incoming guards and Lurdens, knocking each down with a single blast before coming face-to-face with Wong and took a stance.

"Step aside wizard." Wong demanded. "Your tepid spells cannot stop me."

"Be warned. I was a student of Chi-Master Fong." Uncle warned.

"And I am Daolon Wong. The Dark Master who _defeated_ Fong." He said with an evil smirk.

Uncle gave an audible gasp. "You will pay for that!" Uncle blasted a green chi-magic beam at Wong who responded with a dark blue beam from his scepter as the magic beams collided.

Irma flew in the air as several Lurdens tried to swing at her via the chains, but Irma blasted water out from her palms to knock all the creatures off the chains, though she could just barley avoid the Dark Chi Warrior Gan who jumped and grabbed her by the legs to throw her toward the ground, but Irma flapped her wings to stabilize herself just before she could hit the ground and faced Gan who wielded his staff.

"You gonna fight me with a stick?" Irma questioned. "May wanna rethink that."

In direct response, Gan's 'stick' actually converted into a three-chain-linked weapon that he spun almost like a nunchuck before charging at Irma as she instinctively brought up a wall of water to try and shield herself, but the attack slashed through the water like nothing and knocked Irma back toward the wall.

"Okay…" She rubbed her head. "Guess with evil, sticks are all the rage." She quickly flew again to avoid another attack from Gan.

Hay Lin flew around higher into the dungeon, with Blunk holding on for dear life. The girl looked toward the ceiling to see the doors where several more soldiers were pouring in. Hay Lin inhaled and blew a large gust of wind into one doorway to blow all the soldiers further back inside before closing the gate and wrapping a chain around it to lock them up. She turned around to see more gates were still open and more soldiers were pouring in.

"They just keep coming!" She called to everyone. "Cornelia, can you use vines to wrap up the gates?!"

"I'm coming!" Cornelia flew toward one staircase along the wall and landed to see several guards coming her way. She placed one palm on the stairway, in less than a second, several vines and plant tendrils shot out to ensnare several of the guards, which crawled up towards the gate to close and wrap shut.

Taranee threw out a flame from her hand to blast away several incoming guards and landed on the ground to come back-to-back with Caleb as they were surrounded by several more guards.

"Hey, duck!" Taranee said to Caleb. He did just that as she raised both her hands to create a single flame which she expanded and exploded outward like a circular wave of fire to blast all the guards away.

"Nice one." Caleb smiled.

"Thanks, I… Look out!" Both she and Caleb were knocked back by a tail strike from Cedric as he loomed outward them. He gave a loud roar as he shot directly at the pair.

Will flew around as she still held Jade by her arms. "Man, wish I had some fancy elemental power. All I can really do is fly."

"You can punch to you know? Just… WHOA!"

Will pulled her and Jade up as they barely avoided a bladed attack from the shuriken tossed by the Dark Chi Warrior Ren. The weapon returned to him like a boomerang before he tossed it toward the two girls, forcing Will to fly down to the ground where she set Jade down as Jade herself took a combative stance.

"Okay, you hit him high! I'll hit him low!" Jade said, before Will pushed her out of the way to avoid a close-ranged attack from Ren who jumped towards them and slashed his weapon at them. Will flew backwards and picked up a downed shield to block the slashes and blade strikes from Ren as the Dark Chi Warrior forced the Guardian close towards the pit, she was previously imprisoned in.

"Will! Fly now!" Jade called as she ran and did a flying kick to Ren's back, just as Will took to the air. The kick knocked Ren down into the pit, once he landed, he disappeared in a puff of smoke. "Ah yeah! Jade and Will, what a team! High-five!"

Will was a bit surprised but returned Jade's high-five. "Think I could probably use some Kung Fu training myself."

Jackie continued to use his dual shields to block the relentless hammer-strikes from Chui, as he backed and found himself back-to-back with Uncle who was still in a magic-beam-clash with Wong.

"Uncle…! What are these things?!" Jackie asked as he continued to block more of Chui's attacks.

"Warriors made entirely out of Dark Chi." Uncle answered as he continued his struggle against Wong.

"So, who do we stop them?!" Jackie questioned.

"They can be beaten by receiving a fatal blow, or by defeating their master." Uncle replied.

Jackie soon got an idea. "Uncle, switch!" He blocked another hammer-strike with one shield but used the second one like a blunt weapon to knock Chui back before backflipping over Uncle who turned around and zapped Chui with a good chi magic blast to evaporate him.

Wong was taken by surprise by Jackie's intervention that he couldn't block Jackie's flying kick to knock him back. Wong struggled but growled as he blasted more Dark Chi magic from his scepter, which Jackie used his remaining shield to block before pressing the advantage.

Taranee shot out another flame towards Cedric to knock him back, before Caleb tried to press the advantage with his sword. But Cedric used his tail to grab Caleb by his ankle and used him as a weapon to smack Taranee back and knock them both down. He then grabbed both of them with his massive hands and pinned them to the wall and hissed with delight, ready to devour them whole.

"CEDRIC!"

The snake-man turned around to see Tohru, standing admits a large pile of ten unconscious guards and Lurdens.

"Pick on someone your own size." Tohru challenged as he cracked his knuckles.

"As you wish." Cedric glared at him as he dropped Taranee and Caleb before turning around to charge at Tohru with a roar as the sumo-sized man ran toward Cedric in response.

Once they met, Tohru was the first to attack with a punch towards Cedric's face to knock him back. Tohru then delivered an elbow to Cedric's chest and followed with several more punches, until Cedric caught Tohru's next punch in his hand before delivering a punch into Tohru's large chest to knock him into the air and send him rolling back towards the wall.

Cedric slithered his way towards Tohru, who spotted a chain attached to the wall he was at. Right as Cedric closed in, Tohru pulled the chain from the wall, with a large section of stone still attached to the end. He used it like a make-shift club to slam the stone across Cedric's face, shattering it and knocking the snake-man back before Tohru slung the chain over both his shoulders and held the ends out as they draped down his sides.

Both Tohru and Cedric glared at one another as they charged at each other once more. Tohru flung the ends of the chain at Cedric like a pair of whips that knocked him back and even cut him across his body, spilling drops of his blood over the floor. After the fifth strike, Tohru threw one end towards Cedric's neck that wrapped around it as Tohru pulled the chain in, pulling Cedric's face towards Tohru's fist. But as Cedric reeled back, he raised both his fists into the air and slammed them onto Tohru's back to knock him down before Cedric flailed his tail to knock Tohru back towards the wall. Tohru stood up to catch his breath as he rubbed some blood from his mouth before charging at Cedric again.

Irma thrusted both her hands forward to send a torrent of water directly at Gan, but he spun his three-section staff like a helicopter blade to block the attack. Irma tried to press the advantage, but this seemed to leave the Dark Chi warrior open for a flame attack courtesy of Taranee to knock him back towards the wall where Caleb raised his sword to bring down onto Gan, where he vanished into a puff of smoke.

"Thanks guys." Irma breathed a sigh of relief.

"Hey, what are friends for?" Taranee said with a smile. Caleb couldn't help but smile after all. Maybe these new Guardians weren't so helpless after all.

Wong meanwhile continued to blast Dark Chi magic at Jackie who ran, ducked, and jumped to avoid each blast, while also using his shield to block the attacks.

"Your shield cannot protect you forever, mortal!" Wong exclaimed.

"No, but can you protect yourself from this?!"

Wong turned around in surprise to see Hay Lin coming in and blowing another gust of wind from her mouth at Wong to send him hurtling into the air, straight for Cornelia who motioned her arm with a wave, causing a large plant-tendril to ensnare the Dark Chi Wizard and slam him against the wall to knock him unconscious.

"Well done, both of you." Jackie congratulated the Air and Earth Guardians as they set down.

"Well of course. Did you expect anything less?" Cornelia said cockily, while Hay Lin had a beaming smile.

Meanwhile, the only ones still going at it were Tohru and Cedric as they locked hands and attempted to press against each other. Their strength seemed rather equal as neither appeared to gain a concrete advantage over the other.

"I must admit, I'm impressed." Cedric hissed. "You may be the strongest man I've ever faced. But are you strong enough?" Cedric pushed forward, causing Tohru to slide back and loose some ground.

The Guardians, Jackie, Uncle, Jade, and Caleb noticed the trouble he was in and were about to help. But Tohru wasn't done yet. He dug both his feet firmly into the ground before he actually pressed forward, ducking under Cedric's arms and grabbing his chest. The mighty Tohru gave a loud and powerful warrior's yell as he actually lifted Cedric into the air with his bare hands.

Everyone stopped and looked with wide-eyes and dropped jaws. Jackie, Will, Cornelia, Uncle, Hay Lin, Irma, Taranee, Caleb, even Jade and Blunk couldn't believe what they just saw. Not even Cedric himself could believe it as this man, this mighty and strong man, actually lifted the snake-man, who was almost twice his own size, into the air.

Tohru however struggled to hold him this high, Cedric was _very _heavy. He spotted the hole that Jade and Will were once trapped in. "Shakes… should go back to where they belong…" Tohru grunted as he walked toward the pit. "Down under!" Tohru then threw Cedric into the pit, the snake-man yelled as he fell and smacked across the wall before landing painfully on the ground.

Tohru fell to his knees in exhaustion as he tried to catch his breath. Everyone else came to him.

"Tohru, are you alright?" Jackie asked.

"Yes… I will be fine…" Tohru said in-between breaths.

"That… was… AWESOME!" Jade and Hay Lin shouted at the same time.

"You are like… like Superman-strong!" Hay Lin bounced with joy.

"You owned that guy! SLAM!" Irma shouted with happiness.

"He was like twice your size and… and… that was just incredible!" Taranee beamed.

"Bad guys are gonna think twice before messing with you!" Cornelia smiled.

"Big strong man beat Cedric!" Blunk jumped up and down. "Big strong man super good!"

"Tohru… you are…. Just plain incredible!" Will said with a grin.

Jade ran underneath Tohru's arm and lifted it in the air like he was the winner of a heavy-weight boxing match.

"The Champion!"

Tohru blushed as he smiled at all their praise, even so when Jackie placed a hand on his friend's shoulder and smiled with a nod. Caleb didn't say anything as he still found it very hard to believe. Cedric was Phobos' right hand, one of the most dangerous monsters in Meridian, yet Tohru beat him single-handedly. He smiled, this Tohru could be a great ally to the rebellion.

"Yes, we are all very proud of Tohru, my apprentice." Uncle gave a small smile to Tohru. "But we are still trapped in evil castle! Passling, lead us out of here!"

Everyone was brought back to reality with that statement, as well as the moans and roars from the closed gates sealed by Hay Lin and Cornelia previously.

"Follow Blunk! Know way out! This way!" Blunk ran on his hands and feet out one doorway into a large tunnel where the Guardians, Chan Clan, and Caleb all followed, just as many more Lurdens broke through the gates.

As they made a turn and ran or flew deeper into the tunnels, all the Lurdens, caught up and would be right behind them in seconds. Cornelia turned around and slammed the massive gate shut behind her with her powers and grew a large and thick root-vine from the ground to seal it shut. That would stop the horde of Lurdens for the time being.

The group made it further down the tunnel as Blunk made a turn into a broken and abandoned cell, everyone followed him. "Tunnel, yes! Under moat!" Blunk moved a large piece of wood he used to hide the tunnel, only to find it blocked by bars. "Bars! NO!" Blunk cried in despair.

"Um… I don't think I'd fit anyway." Tohru pointed out.

"Cornelia, can you try and make it bigger for everyone?" Will asked the Earth Guardian.

"Hang on." The blonde stepped forward and concentrated her powers. The wall shook as a larger hole was made, breaking down the bars. But she had to push further to make the rest of the tunnel big enough for everyone else.

* * *

Back at the barred gate, the Lurdens tried hard to tear the gate down, but had no luck at all. However, they ended up stopping and stepping aside as Prince Phobos himself walked onto the scene. He growled slightly as he saw that both Cedric and Daolon Wong had been defeated. Perhaps he underestimated his enemies.

"If you want something done right." Phobos said as he used his powers to blast the gate down.

* * *

The group all heard the explosion and looked back in surprise. "They're coming!" Hay Lin exclaimed.

"Come on, move faster!" Taranee said to Cornelia.

"I'm digging as fast as I can!" She pushed further, making the tunnel even bigger, but they were still a long way to go.

Jackie Chan looked to the shield he was still carrying and out the cell where he heard the horde of monsters coming closer before a determined look formed on his face.

"I will buy you time." He said, getting all their attention. "Keep waiting, do not wait for me!"

"What… Jackie!" Jade tried to stop him, but he was already running outside.

"I'll be right behind you Jade! GO!" Jackie ran out and back the way they came to intercept their pursuers.

Jade was about to run after him, but Tohru stopped her by grabbing her by her arm. "Jade, no!"

"But we can't just leave him!"

"We're not going to!" Will stated. "We'll finish the tunnel and be back for him!"

"Is he seriously going by himself?" Caleb questioned.

"Yeah he is. He's buying us time so we can get out, let's not waste it!" Taranee stated.

"But…" Jade tried to protest.

"Jade, you have seen first-hand what Jackie can do." Uncle told his great-niece. "No evil can best him. He will be fine."

"Yeah, you of all people should know how awesome your uncle is." Irma said as well.

"If anyone can do this, it's him." Hay Lin nodded.

"The sooner we get this tunnel done, the sooner we can be back and help him." Cornelia pressed forward, making the tunnel even bigger.

"Brave man." Blunk said, referring to Jackie. "Brave men never last long… OW!" Blunk was shut up by Uncle's dope-slap.

"Jade, didn't you yourself say Jackie would rescue us?" Will asked her. "Well that's what he's doing right now. I doubted him but… now I can see otherwise. I know I only met him just a day ago but… that's gotta be one of the greatest guys I ever met in my life. I trust him completely, do you?"

Jade looked with obvious concerned, but she knew they were all very much right. Jackie has gone on par with the likes of Shendu and every one of his siblings before. He can handle something like this. She smiled. "Yes. I do."

As Cornelia continued to dig, Caleb silently admitted just how beyond impressed he was. This man had no magic powers, yet these new Guardians seemed to trust him completely, and he saw how well he was holding his own back in the dungeon. If they truly trusted this man the way they did, then maybe Caleb could trust him to.

* * *

Jackie had ran out into the tunnel, and quickly flashed his shield in time to block the magic blast from a certain tyrant. Jackie looked to see the man in royal robes, with his Lurden horde behind him.

"Prince Phobos, I presume?"

"And just who might you be?"

"My name is Jackie Chan, and I am going to stop you."

"Oh?" Phobos raised an eyebrow. "And just how are you going to do that?"

Jackie ran directly at Phobos in response who shot another magic blast at him, as the martial artist used the shield to block the attack and press forward. Once he was close enough, he jumped into the air and delivered a flying round-house kick to Phobos' face to knock him down onto the ground.

The Lurdens all backed up in surprise, Phobos was actually knocked down! Phobos sat up with a surprised look on his face. He felt around his mouth to find a small drop of blood before staring at Jackie Chan. He glared daggers at the man who took a combative stance to prepare himself.

Phobos materialized a sword out of thin air into his hand, which he slashed at Jackie who blocked it with his shield. After the second slash, Jackie jumped back a distance away as Phobos threw another magic attack at him, only for Jackie to duck and throw his shield frisbee style, forcing Phobos to duck.

The Lurdens all roared and were about to jump in when Phobos flashed his hand at them. "No! Do not interfere! He is mine!" Phobos then flew directly at Jackie with his sword, which he swung at him relentlessly, but Jackie was able to avoid each attack with his superior agility, as well as parry his hands against Phobos' wrist.

When Phobos went in for a vertical slash, Jackie blocked Phobos' wrist to stop the attack before sweeping his feet to knock Phobos down before he ran further down the tunnel.

"If you want me, then come and get me!" Jackie challenged as he ran away. Phobos gnashed his teeth as he got back up and pursued after his foe.

* * *

At least twenty yards away from the castle, just past the main moat, a large hole imploded from the ground as the dirt fell inward. All five of the Guardians flew out as Blunk, Caleb, Tohru, and Uncle all climbed out.

"Okay everyone here?" Will asked as she tried to do a headcount. "Everyone here except…" She noticed however someone was missing from their group. "Where's Jade?!"

Everyone looked around to see the girl in question was not with them. "Jade! Where'd you go!?" Hay Lin called out to her.

"But she was right here!" Tarenee stated.

"Where did the hell did she run off to?!" Cornelia questioned.

Caleb seemed to have an idea. "Well… she _did _say how concerned she was for her Uncle so…?"

Both Tohru and Uncle slapped their faces and groaned as they knew where she'd be. "Aiya. What is Uncle going to do with that girl?" The old man questioned.

"You guys head for the portal! I'm going after Jade and Jackie!" Will told everyone.

"What about you?" Irma asked.

"I'll meet you guys there, don't worry." Will said. She flew back towards the castle as the rest of the group began to make their way back to the portal.

* * *

Jackie ran and jumped to avoid the relentless volley of magic blasts that Phobos shot at him. Their battle had continued into a dark and red-walled cavern as Jackie ran up the walls and jumped to leap from stalactites on the ceiling with his hands, still avoiding the blasts Phobos threw at him as the tyrant hovered in the air.

Phobos shot a much larger blast at the ceiling where Jackie was, causing it to fall down as Jackie grabbed two stalactites before falling with them. However, as he fell, he threw the stalactites he had at Phobos, who waved his hand to create a magic barrier to block the attack just as Jackie landed on his feet and ran further down into the cave. But he had to stop as he actually came before an abyss that appeared bottomless.

"Nowhere left to run." Phobos stated as he caught up with Jackie. "They say that the Abyss of Shadows is bottomless. Let us see if that is true."

"Why don't _you_ see for yourself?!"

Phobos turned around in surprise to see Jade coming in with an airborne kick to Phobos chest to knock him back. Jackie took advantage of this and ducked his body so that Phobos could trip over it and fall into the Abyss himself.

"Jade!" Jackie exclaimed as he stood up. "You were supposed to go with the others!"

"Yeah, but I decided I couldn't live with myself if something happened to you." Jade said with a smile to Jackie. Her uncle meanwhile sighed but smiled himself as he patted his niece on the head.

"How very touching."

Both Jade and Jackie turned around in surprise to see Phobos hovering out of the Abyss, both his hands surging with large amounts of magic power. Jackie immediately put Jade behind himself as he took a combat stance, ready to fight.

"But… futile! If there is one thing I do not tolerate, it is open defiance!" Phobos was ready to lash out all the magic he could muster, but this left him vulnerable for Will to suddenly fly in and grab Phobos by the shoulders, flying at high-speeds to slam Phobos face-first into a stone wall.

"Come on!" Will extended both her hands as Jackie and Jade jumped toward her. Jackie caught her right hand and Will caught her left as Will flew down toward the abyss and toward a small opening along the side, back toward the outside.

"I can't believe you Jade!" Will exclaimed. "I even gave you a heart-warming speech for crying out loud!"

"Yeah, that was a pretty good speech." Jade said. "But nothing beats seeing Jackie beat the crap out of the bad guys."

"Well, that's true." Will admitted.

"Will, thank you." Jackie said to her.

"Hey, it's like you said; you won't be doing this alone." Will smiled at him, as Jackie nodded.

As the trio made their escape, Phobos fell to his knees as he pulled himself from the wall. He growled; his body filled with rage. "You will not escape…" He telepathically contacted his pet. _"Gargoyle! Do not allow them to escape!"_

* * *

_Outside_

Blunk, Uncle, Caleb, and Tohru ran towards the open portal with Cornelia, Hay Lin, Irma, and Taranee flying just above them. Will was quickly able to catch up to them, still carrying Jackie and Jade.

"There's the portal!" Jackie exclaimed.

"Hell yeah! We are home free baby!" Jade shouted with joy.

However, right as she said that, a massive cyclops monster that appeared to be made out of stone. It's left hand was bone-think, while its right hand was massive. It had a large left leg with a skinny right leg. This was the monster known as Gargoyle.

"Oh, come on!" Jade exclaimed as everyone scattered to avoid the massive arm swipes and stomps from the giant monster.

Uncle ran along the water as he took out his blowfish and shot a Chi-Magic blast at Gargoyle, disorienting it briefly before it tried to lash out at him with his massive hand.

"Sensei!" Tohru pushed Uncle out of the way as used his hands and strength to keep the Gargoyle's hand back. But the monster was clearly stronger than Tohru, who was still tired from his fight with Cedric as he was being pressed down.

"Get away from the big-guy!" Irma shouted as she created a large water-ball with her hands and threw it right at Gargoyle's eye, knocking it away from Tohru. Hay Lin followed through with a gust of wind from her mouth before flying around Gargoyle to create a whirlwind, which actually began to blow back the large monster and knock it over onto the wet ground.

Cornelia was next as she pulled out a massive gathering of mud from the ground around Gargoyle and lifted it into the air before dropping it onto the behemoth with the snap of her fingers. Taranee delivered the finishing move, producing a flame and throwing it at the mud-covered Gargoyle, while telekinetically moving the hot flame around him to quickly heat and solidify the mud into thick rock to imprison the monster.

"Whoa. Go Guardians." Jade said with a grin.

"Don't celebrate just yet." Caleb advised as they all saw the rock-prison beginning to crack as Gargoyle broke out with a loud and booming roar.

"Aiya!" Uncle exclaimed.

"Go! Go! Go!" Jackie shouted to everyone as they all made a break for the portal, with Gargoyle close behind them. Caleb was the first to enter the portal, followed by Blunk, Taranee, Uncle, Hay Lin, Will, Jackie, Jade, Cornelia, and Tohru.

Everyone made it back to Earth, with Irma being the last, but she screamed as Gargoyle's massive hand reached through the portal and grabbed her. "HELP!" Irma screamed as she was about to be pulled back into Meridian.

Jackie quickly ran and jumped onto the stone hand and ran back into the portal, and back into Meridian. Gargoyle looked in surprise to see Jackie running up its arm where he jumped and delivered an airborne punch to its eye. Gargoyle stumbled back as Jackie fell backwards into the portal and back to Earth.

Irma was released from Gargoyle's grip as Jackie fell back through the portal. Will acted quickly and pulled out the Heart of Kandrakar to close the portal shut.

With the crisis now adverted, and everyone back home safe and sound, with the Guardians turning back into their normal forms. Jackie suddenly cried "OW!" as he waved his right hand, clearly in pain after punching solid stone with his bare knuckles.

Suddenly Irma enveloped Jackie in a big hug. "You just saved my life! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

"Can you believe what we just did…?!" Cornelia breathed, still feeling the adrenaline.

"We came, we saw, we kicked evil's butt and in the face!" Jade shouted as she jumped in the air. "Chan Clan and Guardians, one; Phobos, nothing!"

"That was so amazing! We do make an amazing team!" Taranee seemed just as excited.

Will laughed a bit as well but noticed Cornelia's bruised face. "What happened to your face?"

"When we swam across the moat, Cornelia 'George-of-the-jungled' into the wall. Wham!" Hay Lin chuckled, still in a hype herself.

"First we get all these amazing powers…" Irma began to say excitedly. "Then we storm evil and kick it's butt! Tohru totaled snake-boy! Uncle's a badass wizard! And Jackie punched a stone cyclops in the face! So UNREAL!"

Tohru shared smiles with Jackie, and even Uncle grinned a bit. The old man gave a nostalgic sigh, clearly remembering his younger days with Yan Lin and her team of Guardians, and all the fun adventures they had together.

During this, Blunk looked around at his new surroundings before crawling toward the empty street and crawling down into the sewer drain.

Caleb stood up. "I suppose I should thank you all for saving me." He sounded a bit humble as Jackie walked toward him and extended his hand to shake.

"Welcome to Earth, Caleb." Jackie smiled. Caleb smiled back as he shook Jackie's hand.

* * *

_Later that night – Silver Dragon_

Everyone had regrouped at the restaurant as Yan Lin served them tea; though many of them were still excited about what they just went through.

"All the flying and zapping was amazing!" Jade continued to exclaim. "Big snake-man, old dark wizard, and the big bad Phobos were tough, but they were no match for the Guardians and the Chan Clan!" She and Irma high-fived.

"What about that Blunk guy who slipped into the sewers? Do you think he'll be okay?" Hay Lin asked.

"Passling are resourceful creatures. At least that's what I read." Tohru answered. "I'm sure he'll be fine."

"If he comes up through the girls' bathroom, I'm switching schools." Taranee said.

"Ditto." Cornelia agreed.

"Hey guys, look what I figured out our initials spell!" Hay Lin showed them what she wrote on her hand: J-WITCH.

"Where does the J come from?" Will asked.

"J for Jackie, and for Jade to." Hay Lin said.

"J-WITCH, huh? Sweet! We got our own super-hero team name!" Jade pumped her fist.

"For several young girls who have no experience with battle or magic, I must say you have all done very well." Jackie told them all. "If this is what fate seems to have in store for all of you, then I look forward to training and working with all of you." He smiled.

"Awe, we love you to Uncle Jackie!" Hay Lin hugged the man's arm.

"And the important thing is, the bad guy didn't get our new best friends." Irma said, referring to Jade and Will as they were both enveloped into a group hug.

However, Yan Lin put the celebrations to an end. "Oh but Phobos wasn't after Will or Jade themselves. He was after the power of the Heart of Kandrakar."

"But he didn't get the Heart." Will said.

"He may have failed _this _time, but he will try again." Caleb pointed out as he looked out the window toward the night sky. "He's nothing if not persistent."

"One more thing." Uncle began. "Phobos doesn't just seek the Heart of Kandrakar. He is also looking for the heir to Meridian, whom is somewhere here on Earth."

"So, we will have to find the heir before he does." Jackie said, getting serious.

"Indeed." Yan Lin confirmed. "We may have won the battle, but the war has only begun."

Though the group looked on in seriousness with that statement, Jade actually seemed more excited than before.

"Yes! New Adventure! Uh-huh!" She sang and practically danced. "Find the heir! Beat Phobos! Yeah!" Jackie couldn't help but sigh in exhaustion. Well, time to save the world from the Forces of Darkness again.

**Done.**

**Okay, now that was a fun chapter! I thoroughly enjoyed writing every word of it, and I hope you all have just as much enjoyment reading it. The Chan Clan and Guardians have had their first battle against Phobos, Daolon Wong, Cedric, and their forces; but it's only the beginning. Things are going to get harder as they all meet new and old faces, some are friends, others are foes. Lines will be drawn as the clash between good and evil only intensifies.**

**I will now begin updating my other stories before I continue writing this story, but I plan to update at least on a monthly basis, whenever I am available. Thank you all for your support and I will see you with the next chapter soon. **


	3. The Key

**Hi everyone, thanks for waiting. I'm surprised I got so many followers already, only after two chapters. Thank you for your support. So, without further delay, let us begin the next chapter of J-WITCH. **

**The Key**

The tyrant known as Phobos sat on his throne as he was approached by his right-hand, Lord Cedric in his human form; along with Daolon Wong, Vathek, and even his captain of the guard, Raythor.

"Prince Phobos, when the rebel leader, Caleb, escaped with the Guardians and their allies, we found these." Cedric presented to Phobos the unlocked manacles that Caleb was held with when he was brought in.

"Either he picked the lock, or he was given the only key, which is now suspiciously missing." Raythor stated.

"Vathek, you were the last one to see this boy as he was placed in the oubliette." Wong turned to the large blue humanoid. "How could he have escaped?" Vathek winced and tried to come up with an answer, but Raythor beat him to it.

"You helped the rebel, didn't you?! You're a traitor!"

"No!" Vathek said immediately. "I... I must have lost the key in the battle!"

"Odd however you were never seen during that battle?" Wong persisted.

Phobos spoke. "Before we make any accusations, I would prefer to know all the facts. If there is a spy in my ranks, it could be Vathek, but it also couldn't be. Search the castle, if you are telling the truth Vathek, then the key is still here. Until it is located however, you will be confined to the dungeon for the time being, if what you say is true, then you have nothing to worry about. Raythor, watch over him."

"As you wish, Prince Phobos." Raythor bowed to his prince as he began to escort a nervous Vathek out of the throne room.

Cedric transformed into his massive humanoid-serpent form. "For Vathek's sake, that key had better still be here." He slithered out of the room to begin searching, Wong was about to follow when Phobos called to him.

"Daolon Wong, I have a special assignment for you."

"What do you require of me, my Prince?" Wong asked.

"You have previously lived on Earth before. So, find out all you can about a warrior named 'Jackie Chan'." Phobos ordered.

* * *

_Earth – Heatherfield_

Uncle's Rare Finds would be opened soon; but of course, all the artifacts, merchandise, and magic books had to be unloaded and unpacked off the truck. Jackie and Tohru did some of the heavy lifting, Jade worked as well, Yan Lin brought Hay Lin over to help to. Of course, they also had assistance from a certain rebel whom they recently rescued.

"What the heck is in these boxes to make them so heavy?" Caleb questioned as he set one large box down on the ground rather roughly.

"Aiya! Be careful!" Uncle exclaimed. "Uncle's antiques are extremely rare! You want to shatter priceless artifacts?! No? Then handle with care!"

As Caleb backed away in comical fear; Hay Lin looked in minor surprise. "As your uncle always been like that?" She asked Jade as the two helped unpack several of Uncle's books in the backroom.

"Oh, you have no idea." Jade rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"Aside from unpacking some old man's shop, why am I dressed like this?" Caleb questioned referring to his current clothes consisting of a long-sleeved blue t-shirt with brown kakis and even a Yankees baseball cap.

"Hey, I made you those clothes!" Hay Lin shouted, taking offense to that statement.

"Guess they don't have manners in Meridian." Jade muttered.

"Give him some time girls." Yan Lin told her granddaughter and Jade. "He has been battling Phobos forces for a very long time."

"Caleb, I can understand why you feel this is frustrating." Jackie told the young rebel. "But things are different here on Earth. We must keep magic and everything about Meridian a secret here."

"Your world has magic to, doesn't it?" Caleb asked.

"It does." Tohru nodded as he set a box down gently. "But most people have already forgotten about it. People have a bad history of misjudging what they don't understand."

Caleb sighed. "Fine. I'm still surprised that you were able to go toe-to-toe with Phobos of all people and not have any magic powers." He said to Jackie.

"I have experience battling evil." Jackie said.

"That's an understatement." Jade added as she ran into the room. "You should have seen all the guys he's taken down! From crime lords to magic ninjas to giant demons!"

"That all still sounds really amazing!" Hay Lin beamed. "You have got to tell me more!"

Jackie smiled a bit at their enthusiasm. Caleb smiled a bit to, not everyone can say they went face-to-face with Phobos and made it out alive. He took a book from the box he put down and began to look at its contents.

"So, all these books contain magic spells… OW!" Caleb rubbed his forehead where Uncle slapped him as the old man took the book away.

"Do not touch!"

"So Caleb, where is your little Meridian friend?" Yan Lin asked.

"His name is Blunk, and he's not my friend." Caleb said in a grumble.

"Hey, did the toad got us out of Phobos' castle, didn't he?" Jade reminded. "What is he again?"

"A passling." Tohru answered. "Magical traders with the natural ability to detect raw magic. They also have a discrete scent to them."

"Which translates into 'they stink'?" Jade questioned. Everyone looked toward Jade in minor surprise considering she just defended Blunk. "What? Just because he seems like a cool little toad-guy doesn't mean he doesn't need a serious shower!"

"Well I think he's kinda cute." Hay Lin said. "Wonder where he is anyway."

* * *

_Meridian – Castle Town_

The local town around the castle seemed pretty decent. The people there lived okay lives, should they not oppose Phobos. If they did, it would lead to dire consequences. But despite that, as people walked and attended to their own personal business, a certain Passling was doing what he did best as well.

"Rare fruit! Delicacy!" Blunk tried to show a cold French Fry to some people who just walked by. He also had with him other pieces of junk that he got from his short time on Earth including a broken CD, an old cell phone, used pieces of clothing, an old video tape, and he even wore a bra over his head like a hat. "Magic box of string!" He showed the video tape as he began to pull the tape out. "See? String never stop."

A man walked by and spoke discreetly to him. "I have no money, but my sister works in the castle, and I have some valuable information."

That caught Blunk's attention. "Trade for attractive ear-plugs?" He showed off two old corn cobs.

"Uh… I rather have the hat." He pointed to the bra Blunk wore on his head.

* * *

_Earth – Heatherfield_

Caleb had just finished unpacking the rest of Uncle's stuff and was walking back to the Silver Dragon. He looked in minor surprise as he saw a pair of kids riding on skateboards past him, never seeing anything like that before. He even heard some other people talking but kept to himself mostly.

After getting back to the restaurant, he walked into the basement where he would be staying during his time on Earth. He looked to an old mirror to look at the clothes he was currently wearing. He honestly slept in tents smaller than that. However, he spotted something in the reflection, someone was behind the window on the ceiling.

He quickly ducked and rolled along the floor, grabbing a broom from the side before sneaking toward the window. He used the stick-end to unlock the window, forcing it to open and for the spy to suddenly fall into the basement.

Caleb looked in surprise to see Blunk picking himself up from the floor. "You!"

Blunk presented an old French Fry. "Fruit?"

"How did you know I was here?!" Caleb demanded as Blunk ate the fry himself.

"Blunk know lots. Blunk know big secret. Sell Caleb secret." Caleb didn't like that and pressed the stick-end of the broom at Blunk's chest. "Half-off?" He laughed nervously as Blunk was cornered to the wall. "Okay! Secret free! Vathek in trouble! Missing key! Big Trouble!"

That caught Caleb's attention. "The manacle key? That's impossible! I put it in the hiding place like we agreed, so Vathek could recover it after I left." He remembered hiding the key in the wall in the dungeon as he, the Guardians, Jackie, and everyone else made their escape. He knew he hid the key in the right spot. How could it be missing? Unless…

He spotted Blunk attempting to sneak out and grabbed the Passling by the legs before holding him upside down and shaking him, causing Blunk to lose everything he had on him, which included the very same key.

Blunk laughed nervously. "Not missing now. Finder fee?"

"_You_ took the key?!" Caleb shouted.

"Okay, bad decision." Blunk admitted before Caleb dropped him.

He picked up the key and looked in worry for his friend. "Vathek saved my life. If I don't return this, he's as good as dead."

* * *

_Meridian –Throne Room_

"My Prince." Daolon Wong bowed before Phobos. "I believe I have the information you are seeking."

"And? What can you tell me?" The dark prince asked.

"Jackie Chan is no ordinary warrior." Wong began to inform. "His feats are, I dare say, legendary. He has battled Forces of Darkness so great; they rival even you." Wong held his staff as a dark blue cloud of smoke formed and began to show magical images of Jackie Chan's numerous battles against the likes of the Shadowkhan, including all the Demon Sorcerers, even his climatic battle against Shendu himself at his palace.

"These creatures that you see here, are powerful Demon Sorcerers" Wong explained. "They terrorized the Earth in ancient times and held powers so great that it took a legion of powerful Chi-wizards just to banish them. Yet Jackie Chan battled all of them and vanquished every single one, even one that was feared on Earth as the Ultimate Evil."

Phobos looked at all of Jackie's battles with interest. The monsters he saw him face were intimidating and powerful to say the least, yet despite the powers of these Demon Sorcerers, this Jackie Chan was able to beat them with no magic whatsoever. Though he could see that Chan had help from a pair of wizards, the fact that he and his allies alone bested these creatures when it took ancient wizards to banish them alone was no small feat.

"How fascinating." Phobos spoke. "I have clearly underestimated this warrior. And if he is training these new Guardians, then he is a grave threat."

"So, it would seem." Wong agreed. "What would you have me do, Prince Phobos?"

"The next time Chan is spotted, don't take him prisoner, he is too dangerous to roam free. Kill him on sight."

"As you wish." The Dark Chi Wizard smiled malevolently at that order.

* * *

_Heatherfield_

It was mid-afternoon as the members of J-WITCH, along with their friends and allies, were gathered on a rocky terrain near the water about three miles or so out of town. Seemed like the perfect place to get some training in.

Jackie observed their surroundings. It was far away from any residential areas, there was plenty of rocks and water around, making it the perfect place for elemental and magic training. "This seems perfect. So, let's get to work."

"Oh, this is gonna be totally awesome!" Hay Lin bounced. "We're gonna learn magic Kung Fu!"

"You know it!" Jade gave a friendly and excited point to Hay Lin. "By the time Uncle Jackie's done with you guys, you'll be rolling bad guy heads left and right!"

"I really hope we don't have to actually fight bad guys any time soon." Taranee said. "Last time was a bit… freaky."

"Everything's freaky for you, Taranee." Cornelia said.

"So, we gonna jam or what?!" Irma was pumped. "Come on let's go all Magic-Pixie again... oh sorry, 'Guardians'." Irma corrected, in order to avoid being dope-slapped by Uncle who merely looked judgmental as always.

Will took out the Heart of Kandrakar and said the magic words. **"Guardians Unite!" **

In a bright flash of colored light; Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin were enveloped in their respective magic spheres and transformed into their Guardian forms. Once the transformation was completed, Hay Lin didn't waste any time shooting off into the sky, flipping and soaring while cheering and shouting 'yahoo' the whole time.

"Show off." Irma said.

"Hay Lin come back down here!" Jackie called to her. She hovered her body back down to the ground with everyone else.

"Sorry. Still just so excited." Hay Lin was filled with so much energy. Jackie was pleased to see Hay Lin being so optimistic, she just needed to control herself a bit.

"So, what fancy fighting tricks you gonna show us first?" Irma asked. "A flying kick? That fancy neck chop that knocks people out?"

"First, we are going to learn how to punch." Jackie said, causing the five girls to look either surprised or disappointed.

"No offense, but I was actually expecting something a bit flashier." Cornelia said. "I mean, anyone can punch."

"Not really." Jade pointed out. "It's actually a bit more difficult if you never been in a fight before."

"Seriously?" Will asked with a raised eyebrow.

"She's right." Jackie explained. "And Uncle and Tohru will help you to harness your magic power shortly. But there is more to Kung Fu than just simply fighting. It is about discipline, self-defense, learning how and when to apply the force needed, and knowing just when to action. Aside from our recent battle in Meridian, how many of you have been in actual fight before?"

The five girls looked towards each other, not really having an answer to that. "Do pillow fights at sleep overs count?" Hay Lin asked. Jackie smiled and shook his head.

"Well I can understand Will needing to learn Kung Fu, but what do the rest of us need it for?" Cornelia asked. "I mean, we can fly and shoot fire and grow killer plants so… OW!" She rubbed her forehead, the same spot where Uncle slapped her.

"You cannot always rely on your powers!" Uncle exclaimed. "What if Forces of Darkness attack and you cannot transform? You must learn how to defend yourselves even without powers."

"Uncle is right." Jackie agreed. "If you become too dependent on one thing, and that thing is taken from you, it'll be much more difficult to handle yourself in a fight."

"He's got a point." Taranee noted.

"Okay, so who's gonna throw the first punch?" Jade asked the five of them.

"I guess I'll go." Cornelia shrugged as she walked towards Jackie who placed both his palms in front, giving her the place to try and punch. She shrugged as she tried to give a punch, but Jackie quickly caught her wrist and put her in a lock that held both her arms behind her back.

"Ow! Ow! You didn't say you were gonna fight back!"

"I never said I wasn't." Jackie said as he let her go. "You didn't give enough force, and your attack was too slow. Be sure to give a quick and hard strike." He advised as she rubbed her arms.

Jackie repeated the process with the others. Irma was quick in her punch, but her wrist bent as she did, and the punch didn't properly connect. She must keep her attacks straight and on-point. Hay Lin was next, but her movements were too erratic, she had to calm herself; while having an abundance of energy was good, she had to learn how to focus it and maintain self-control. Taranee went next, but her punch didn't really have any force to it; she was afraid. That could be a bit of an issue, but Jackie assured her they would work on it.

Will was last. She took in the advice Jackie gave the other girls and gave a punch. Her arm was straight and she focused on that attack. Jackie turned to parry the attack, but before he could move in, Will suddenly gave a kick, forcing Jackie to duck and jump back instinctively. The other girls looked in surprise, even Jade was stunned.

"I didn't expect you to kick."

"Well, you said I couldn't." Will said. Jackie looked quite impressed.

"Alright, I can see where you all need to work, and we will work on improving your techniques." He said to all the Guardians. "But for now; Will, you will work more with me and Jade. Taranee and Cornelia will work with Tohru with your abilities; Hay Lin and Irma with Uncle for the same reason."

"Least I'm not with the old man this time." Cornelia grumbled, only for said 'old man' to slap her again. "Ow!"

"Respect your elders!" Uncle scolded as the other girls, including Jade, laughed, while Cornelia just pouted.

The groups then split off. Jackie would help Will with fighting hand-to-hand first because she needed it the most. Unlike the other Guardians, she didn't seem to have any elemental powers so her learning to properly defend herself was crucial.

Both Will and Jade were practicing the same movement, punching straight forward with one arm before pulling back and delivering the punch with the other arm, and repeating the same process.

"Good." Jackie nodded. "Now let us see how well you kick. Jade, please demonstrate."

"Got it." His niece then delivered a straight-forward upward kick before pulling back.

"Okay, let me try." Will tried to give the same kick, only for her foot to slip on a rock, causing her to yelp as she fell flat on her back. "Ow." She groaned as Jackie offered her a helping hand, which she took. "I'm sorry. I slipped."

"It's alright." Jackie assured. "This only our first practice session, I don't expect you to get it right away."

Despite the assurance, Will didn't seem all that pleased. "I'm sorry if I kinda sound like a baby right now, but it's just so unfair. Everyone else has got some elemental power, but I don't. Why?"

"You got me." Jade shrugged. "There eight different Demons and they each had a different power."

"I'm quite certain that their magic and the ones you are all using is different." Jackie assured. "While I cannot say I don't fully understand why you don't appear to have a power, it does not mean that you aren't useless Will."

"That's right." Jade added. "So what if you can't shoot fire or water? You're still super strong! Here, lift that big rock!" She pointed to a large rock nearby that looked as though it would weigh more than sixty pounds.

Will came over to the rock and picked it up with both hands. She tried to heave it, but almost fell back in surprise as it felt like it wasn't even ten pounds in weight. "Whoa! This… this feels really light!" She then held it one hand and threw it all the way out to the water, easily making it as far as forty feet before landing with a splash.

"See? What I tell ya? You're like a Supergirl in training." Jade gave a thumbs up, causing Will to feel a bit better.

"Jade is right." Jackie assured Will. "Instead of focusing on what you can't do, focus on what you _can._ You are clearly strong, and you can fly as well. See that boulder?" Jackie gestured to a massive boulder along the cliffside. "Try kicking it, while also flying to it at the same time. And don't hold back."

"Flying kick? Alright." Will took a few steps back before running at the boulder, and then jumping while using her wings to give an extra boost in speed as she stuck her foot out, her leg straight and firm just like her punch, and kicked the rock so hard that cracks formed all over and it crumbled into pieces.

"Whoa! Did… did I really just do that?!" Will exclaimed with excitement and a wide smile.

"Heck yeah, you did!" Jade cheered. "Imagine if that was Phobos' face!" She laughed.

Will laughed along with her as Jackie smiled. "Do you see Will? You can fight. But also remember, the greatest victory is the battle _not _fought."

"What exactly does that mean?" Will asked, not really understanding.

"When the time comes, you'll see." Jackie assured. "Now, shall we continue?"

A determined look formed in Will's eyes as she smiled and nodded. "Yes, let's keep going."

Meanwhile; Tohru was working with Cornelia and Taranee near the beach, working more with their respective elements, though Cornelia seemed less than eager to work.

"How am I supposed to use my power? Do you see any plants anywhere?"

Tohru sighed but tried to speak as respectfully as possible. "Your element doesn't just pertain to plants, Cornelia. You have the power of Earth. That means you can control stone, rock, sand, everything that connects to the planet." He gently took her hand and placed it on the sandy ground. "Try to manipulate the sand. Think of it as just lots of tiny rocks."

Cornelia closed her eyes and tried to focus on the ground. As she did, the sand around her began to move and shift, swirling just below her palm. As she quickly pulled her hand up, a large sandcastle formed just below her. It was so big, that it reached up to her chest; and very detailed, looking like a real-life medieval castle.

"Very nice." Tohru nodded.

"Well of course." Cornelia said with a grin as she brushed her hair back, looking as confident as possible. "Now if only I can make a real castle, that would be amazing!"

However, her sandcastle was suddenly blown to bits by a ball of fire. The two looked in surprise to the girl who accidentally blew it up.

"Sorry." Taranee apologized as she put her palms together to try and get better control. She was able to create another large fireball in between her hands, but she shrieked at the sight of it and dropped it, causing it to burrow at her feet before going out in a puff of smoke.

This caused her to look even more dejected as she hung her head, but the large and gentle man walked to her. "Mrs. Lin said you had a fear of fire, correct?"

Taranee sighed. "Ever since I was little, yeah. Is it so bad that I'm afraid of getting burnt or worse, burning one of my friends?"

"Fire can be dangerous, yes." Tohru acknowledge. "But it can also serve as one's salvation. When you're stuck in the mountains, in the freezing cold, a fire can save your life and keep you warm. A flame can also help you to see if you're lost in the dark. But more importantly, you have to think of this fire as a part of you." Tohru gently took both her hands and spoke calmly to her "You control the power; it does not control you. Relax, and try again."

Taranee seemed to take Tohru's words to heart as she sighed. "Okay, relax. Calm." She took a deep and long breath to calm herself. "I control the power; it doesn't control me." Taranee created another ball of fire in her hand, this time she wasn't afraid. She tossed it up and down in her hands like a regular ball and seemed to be in control.

The bespectacled girl then motioned her hands around the fire to change its shape and form, with another pull and shift, she had transformed her flame into the shape of a Chinese Dragon, just like what she saw Uncle do at the Silver Dragon when they first met. "Hey… I… I did it! I did it!" She threw the fire-dragon straight up into the air where it exploded in brilliant fashion.

"Amazing!" Tohru congratulated. "That was wonderful."

"Yeah, not half-bad Taranee." Cornelia complemented as Taranee herself smiled and sheepishly rubbed her arm.

Meanwhile; closer towards the water, Uncle was working with Hay Lin and Irma, the former was still as hyper as usual.

"Okay, so what do I do?" Hay Lin asked. "I mean, I can already create a tornado. See?" She spun her body around and created a small tornado around her for emphasis but stopped as Uncle slapped her on the forehead. "Ow! That hurts!"

"You can use your power, yes. But can you properly control it?" Uncle questioned. "You have much energy inside you. While this is good and it can be helpful in battle, you must learn to focus, to understand how much power you need in that moment. Now, create a small sphere of air in your hands."

Hay Lin sighed as she brought her hands together to create a small air-ball that spun rapidly.

"Good." Uncle nodded. "Now, bring your hands together to make it flat, but keep the pressure steady."

The youngest Guardian did just that. She was able to flatten the sphere of air and make it about as thin as a sheet of power but kept up the constant air pressure.

"Now then, throw it at that rock." Uncle pointed to a nearby rock. Hay Lin took it like a frisbee and threw it at the top portion of the rock but looked in surprise to see it actually cut through the rock like a knife through butter.

"Whoa! Didn't see that coming!" Irma voiced in surprise.

"Oh… how did I do that?" Hay Lin questioned.

"By focusing." Uncle explained. "Air is a powerful element, not just an all-consuming tempest, but if applied enough pressure, even a mountain can crumble underneath the wind, if you know how much force to give and where to give it."

Hay Lin looked to her hands with a smile.

"So, it's all about focus and control, huh?" Irma asked. "Well I think I got a handle on that." She walked close towards the water. She pulled up a large blob of water, getting the attention of everyone present. "I give you… Cornelia!" She molded the water into a near identical copy of Cornelia's face.

This resulted in claps from everyone present, including Jackie and Tohru. Uncle remained as stoic as usual while Cornelia just looked annoyed.

"Thanks for the nose." The blonde crumbled at the sight of the crocked nose in Irma's water sculpture.

"Yeah, looks way better than the original." Jade cracked with a smug grin at Cornelia, resulting in her scowling.

Irma bowed admits the claps. "Thank you, thank you very much." She quoted Elvis, but lost control of the water, causing it to explode outward like a downpour of rain, complete with the sea-creatures she brought up; including fish, crabs, and starfish. This caused everyone to scream or yell as they tried to take cover.

"Focus and control, yes! Discipline, no!" Uncle exclaimed as he tried to cover himself.

One fish happened to land on Tohru's face. "I hate fish."

* * *

_Later that night_

After getting cleaned up and dried off; Jackie, Tohru, Uncle, and the six girls, all made their way back to the Silver Dragon.

"Well that…. Went well don't you think?" Will asked the group.

"Speak for yourself." Cornelia grunted. "I still smell like raw fish."

"Despite the… unexpected events… we know where you all stand what needs the most improvement." Jackie said. "This will do well for us in the future."

"Girls still have long way to go." Uncle said. "One more thing, you all must learn to work together as well. Teamwork is key."

Taranee shivered as she felt something down her back. "Uh… I fell something down the back of my neck."

Jade came behind Taranee and saw what it was. "Um… promise not to have a panic attack if I tell you what it is?" Taranee shook her head. "Then its just some seaweed." It was actually an eel that Jade pulled out and threw to the ground, which slithered into the sewers.

"Oh, by the way guys, Jade and I just helped unpack Uncle's shop." Hay Lin told the girls. "You gotta come check it out. That stuff he's got looks so old, and priceless, and cool."

"The shop is not ready yet, unfortunately." Tohru said.

"Why not?" Irma asked.

Uncle scoffed. "Landlord said shop must be sprayed for bugs. This is how I spray for bugs!" He stomped his foot onto the ground, to show his method of 'spraying for bugs'.

Hay Lin opened the door to her family's restaurant. "Well, you still gotta see the outfits I made for Caleb! I designed this really cute retro aviator fifty's thing, and I think if you all hold him down…"

"Everyone!" Yan Lin walked onto the scene. "I have some terrible news!"

"What is it?" Jackie asked urgently.

"Caleb is gone. I'm afraid he may have returned to Meridian." Yan Lin answered, resulting in the group looking in shock or surprise as most of the girls gasped.

"Say what?!" Jade exclaimed.

"Aiya!" Uncle shouted.

Jackie groaned as he rubbed his hand down his face. He had a feeling that Caleb would want to get back to Meridian soon, but without even telling anybody else?! What was going on here?

"Why the heck would Caleb leave without saying anything?!" Irma questioned as they went into the basement, where the rebel leader was previously sleeping. "Not much of a team player."

"Perhaps he had a reason to leave, an emergency with his rebellion." Tohru suggested.

Jade smelled something that caused her to plug her noose. "Aw man, smells worse than Uncle's garlic breath."

"Lots of garlic is good for you!" Uncle protested.

"Yeah if you're trying to fend off vampires." Cornelia muttered, but kept it quiet to avoid being slapped by Uncle again.

"But seriously, it stinks to high heaven in here." Will plugged her nose as they spotted a pair of familiar short clothes with flies buzzing around it. It didn't take a genius to know whose they belonged to.

"Blunk." Everyone said at the same time.

"Perhaps he had something important to tell Caleb, which could explain why he left so urgently." Jackie thought.

"So, we find the little toad, we find Caleb." Jade voiced. "Any idea where to find him?"

"According to my studies, Passlings have a tendency to stay in places that are… how should I say… less sanitary." Tohru offered.

"Well sure, that pretty much narrows it down to every single dumpster or trash heap in Heatherfield." Irma voiced sarcastically.

"I will devise locator spell." Uncle reached into his coat-pocket to pull out a series of magical items as he sat down in front of Blunk's discarded clothes.

"A locator spell? Really?" Cornelia skeptically voiced. "Like that's a real thing."

* * *

_Ten Minutes Later_

"I stand corrected." The blonde said as Uncle led the group down an alleyway with a dried-up lizard, the end of it glowing green to indicate Blunk's location. The brighter the glow, the closer they were.

"Uncle's spells have proven very beneficial in the past. He has never once failed to help in the event of an emergency." Jackie said.

"How do these locator spells work exactly?" Taranee asked.

"It usually depends on who or what you are trying to locate." Tohru explained. "In this case, as were searching for a living creature, we usually need something from him, a piece of Blunk's chi, or life force. Sensei can then use the trace of that chi to locate its source."

"So, like a magical DNA detector, oh wizards are so cool!" Hay Lin said with a smile.

Uncle continued to lead the group as the green glow was even brighter. "We are close." He held his lizard and pointed it right at a large dumpster, that had all sorts of things being tossed out.

"Oooh, treasures! Yes! Yes!"

"Found him." Jade said.

Taranee then produced a small fireball in her hand to provide a light source. It lit up the whole area where they saw Blunk, who looked in surprise at who was standing there. Hay Lin however gave an audible gasp at what Blunk was currently wearing.

"What is he wearing?!" She exclaimed. Blunk was wearing the Earth-clothes Caleb previously wore, including the red cap.

"Aren't those the clothes you made for Caleb?" Jade asked, resulting in Hay Lin steaming with anger.

"Blunk, where is Caleb?" Jackie got straight to the point.

"Back to Meridian. Went through portal." Blunk answered.

"Take us to the portal, right now." Jackie told the Passling, but he did not like that idea.

"No! No! Portal secret!"

"You showed Caleb where it was." Will pointed out.

"Hey pay." Blunk said. "Tight threads. Blunk styling." He really liked the clothes Caleb gave him.

"How do you know where the portals are anyway?" Irma asked.

"Blunk always know. Blunk a Passling. Passlings can smell."

Taranee waved a hand in front of her face to wave away the scent. "Ooh, boy is that an understatement."

"Passlings are sensitive to surges of magic." Tohru pointed out. "So maybe he can detect the portals. Apparently through his nose."

"I don't know whether to be impressed or disgusted." Jade said.

"Smelling portals not important." Uncle stated. "Finding and closing portal is. You will lead us to portal immediately."

"No!" Blunk exclaimed. "Portals good for business! Guardians find portal, guardians close!"

"We have to close it or else the Forces of Darkness ooze through." Will stated.

"It's like putting the cap on the toothpaste." Irma said.

"I'm sure this guy has never even heard of toothpaste." Cornelia said.

Hay Lin however was not thinking about that. "I can't believe you're wearing those clothes!" She shouted to Blunk.

"Blunk got it going on." The Passling liked the clothes he was wearing, but Hay Lin didn't.

"Oh no, Blunk got it coming _off_! I made those for Caleb! If I find him, he's gonna wish Phobos found him first!"

Hay Lin's threat freaked out Blunk as he dove into the dumpster and crawled out of a hole in the side and ran as fast as he could.

"The toad's making a run for it!" Jade exclaimed.

"Follow Passling! Hurry!" Uncle shouted as most of the group chased after him. Jade would have followed but Jackie stopped her.

"Jade, you go back to the Silver Dragon with Miss Lin. We'll handle this." Jackie told his niece.

"Awww." Jade groaned as Jackie turned around to run and catch up with everyone else.

The group ran out of the alleyway and chased after Blunk down a street as he jumped down into what appeared to be a sewer but vanished in a flash of light. The group quickly ran to see what it was that Blunk jumped into.

"A sewer portal?" Will questioned.

"Eww!" Cornelia was beyond grossed out, just as everyone else was to.

"We have no time to waste! We must enter portal now!" Uncle stated as he was the first to jump in, followed by Jackie. Will, Irma, Hay Lin, and even Cornelia jumped in to, despite how gross it seemed.

"Ooooh." Taranee groaned. "First, I was covered in fish and crabs, then a rat-infested alley next to a dumpster, now I'm jumping into a sewer?"

Tohru patted her back as he offered a sympathetic look before the girl reluctantly jumped in, with Tohru stepping in close behind. Despite his large size, he passed through the portal with no issue at all.

* * *

Will, Jackie, Taranee, Irma, Hay Lin, Tohru, Uncle, and Cornelia all regrouped as they had now entered the realm of Meridian, which was about as dark and gloomy as they remembered.

"Why is it always dark here?" Cornelia complained.

"Different time zones. Evil is five hours ahead of us." Irma joked a bit.

"Where is Blunk?" Jackie looked around.

"Locator spells says this way!" Uncle pointed his lizard, the green glow pointing in Blunk's location as they saw the Passling running down the hill.

"Hey! That's four-hundred thread silk! Quit dragging the sleeves!" Hay Lin shouted as Blunk continued to run. However, a Chi-blast from Uncle's lizard at Blunk's feet was able to trip up the Passling, allowing the group to quickly catch up and detain him.

Blunk lowered his head in defeat as he had his sleeves tied behind his back. "Well back in evil town. Was kinda hopping we wouldn't have to be so soon." Will said.

"Do we really need to worry about anything?" Cornelia asked. "Phobos is looking for the Guardians; if we stay normal, he shouldn't recognize us, right?"

"Well what about Jackie, Uncle, and Tohru here? No way they don't have wanted posters or anything." Irma said.

Jackie looked toward the town and saw a patch of cloaks being held on a clothesline near a house. "Wait here."

* * *

Meanwhile, in another part of the same town, Caleb had donned his normal attire as he did his best to sneak around the buildings and alleyways to avoid the patrolling guards. It didn't help with the rain and storm either. He hid behind one alleyway, when someone suddenly came out, causing Caleb to jump only to relax upon seeing it was his friend.

"Aldarn, you gave me one heck of a scare."

"Sorry Caleb. They're out looking for you _everywhere_." Aldarn said, with a flying creature passing over them for emphasis. "We heard you'd gone through the Veil. What's it like there?"

"It's very different from Meridian." Caleb explained. "Get this, people there use magic, but nobody else knows about it. They use this thing called technology instead."

"Technology…?" Aldarn didn't quite understand.

"Yeah, and the kids there ride some kind of board on wheels and say things like 'like' and 'totally' in their sentences." Caleb also said.

"Earth sounds… strange."

"My friend, you have no idea."

* * *

_Castle – Dungeon_

Vathek remained confined in his cell as Raythor continued to stand guard. So far, the key had not been found, and that made Vathek even more nervous as he knew what would happen if the key wasn't found.

"In two hours, if the key is not found, you'll have a one-way trip to the abyss of shadows." Raythor said.

"Raythor… why do you serve Phobos?" Vathek asked.

"What?"

"I've seen the kind of man you are." Vathek began. "You value honor above all else, and you are loyal to a fault. I don't understand though why someone like you would follow a tyrant like Phobos."

"He is no tyrant!" Raythor turned around. "Prince Phobos may not be perfect, but I vowed to serve the royal family and I have every intention of keeping that vow."

"Raythor, have you not seen how the people are suffering?" Vathek questioned.

"Perhaps if the people and the Rebellion actually tried to work with Phobos, there wouldn't even be a fight." Raythor argued.

"Why would they work with him after all he's done?!" Vathek argued. "He even murdered his own parents so that he could claim the throne!"

"That's a lie!" Raythor shouted. "I have known the Prince ever since he was a boy. He did care for his parents and would never stoop so low as to end their lives."

"Raythor…" Vathek tried to reason with him.

"He may very well be the last of the royal family." Raythor said. "I will serve and protect my prince with my life."

Vathek hung his head. Raythor was indeed an honorable warrior, but it may be his honor and loyalty that is blinding him to the truth. Whatever the case, Vathek may never know the reason, because his trip to the Abyss of Shadows seemed more than a possibility now.

* * *

_Castletown_

Jackie led Uncle, Will, Irma, Taranee, Tohru, Cornelia, and Hay Lin down an alleyway. Each of them had hooded cloaks on, though Tohru had two tied together as a single cloak couldn't cover his whole body. They carried Blunk with them to keep an eye on him.

"Why is this thing so itchy?" Cornelia asked as she scratched her shoulder.

"What's more important, the itch you need to scratch, or getting captured by bad guys?" Irma said, causing Cornelia to grumble.

"Please, we must stay inconspicuous." Jackie told the group as they walked onto the street.

"Jackie is right." Tohru agreed. "The last thing we need is to draw attention to ourselves."

"Hey, you!"

They all turned around in surprise to see a guard approaching them. "Busted." Hay Lin gulped.

"Sshh." Will tried to shush her as Jackie walked up.

"Um…. hello." Jackie tried to act as friendly and unsuspicious as possible.

"Why are all of you still out this late?" The guard asked. "A curfew is in effect. There is a dangerous criminal on the loose."

"Oh… I am sorry, we weren't aware." Jackie said.

"I need to see your papers." The guard stated.

"Oh well… you see… we…" Jackie was shoved aside by Uncle.

"We have no papers, but you will get a piece of Uncle!" The old man showed off his lizard to blast a surge of Chi-magic to blast the guard back all the way to the building on the other side of the street.

"Whoa!" Will voiced as everyone looked with wide-eyed surprise.

"Uncle, the last thing we needed was to cause a commotion!" Jackie told his uncle.

"Bah, you make too much noise making excuses." Uncle brushed off.

"Oh so blasting people doesn't make noise?!" Irma exclaimed. "Because I think we drew a crowd!"

Two more guards spotted them and saw their comrade had been blasted back and ran towards the group.

"Time to go!" Jackie stated as he gestured for everyone to run with the two guards following them.

* * *

Meanwhile, Caleb was walking down another streetway, trying to come up with a plan with his friend.

"Aldarn, there's something I need to return in the Castle."

"Nun uh." Aldarn shook his head. "Ever since you escaped, that place was put under an even heavier guard than normal. You'd need the Guardians of the Veil to get in there."

Funny thing to say that, because right as the two walked out another street, Caleb was accidentally rammed into by Jackie, Will, and Cornelia as they tripped and fell on top of each other. Uncle and Tohru, with Blunk riding on the larger man, stopped, stopping Hay Lin, Irma, and Taranee from ramming into the pile as well.

"Wha.. Caleb!" Jackie exclaimed in surprised.

"What are all of you doing here?!" The rebel leader questioned.

"Never mind that!" Hay Lin shouted. "Why aren't you wearing these clothes?!" She exclaimed towards Blunk.

"Why did you come back to Meridian without telling us?" Will questioned.

"I can handle myself!" Caleb brushed himself off as he stood up with everyone else. "I wouldn't even need to be here if he hadn't stolen this key!" He pointed to Blunk who ran off in fear as he took out the maniacal key that may decide the fate of his friend.

"Wait… you're telling me this is all the stink-monkey's fault!?" Irma questioned as they saw that Blunk was long gone.

"Well duh!" Caleb exclaimed. "And why were you guys running?"

"We were kinda running from them!" Taranee pointed behind to see the two guards having caught up.

Tohru ran in front of the group to try and defend them, raising his fists and preparing for a fight when suddenly…

***CLANG!***

***CLANG!*  
**

Both guards fell unconscious as Jade appeared behind them, holding a shovel over her shoulder. "Good night bad guys."

"Jade?!" Jackie exclaimed as everyone looked in surprise. "What are you doing here?!"

"I followed you through the portal, duh."

"But you were supposed to stay with Miss Lin!" Jackie protested.

"Which Lin?" Jade pointed to Hay Lin who simply shrugged with a smile, indicating she had no idea about this. This caused Jackie to sigh and pull his hand down his face.

"Okay rebel-boy, the heck are you doing back here?" Jade asked Caleb. "We risked our lives to get you out of that suck shack of a castle now you wanna get back in?!"

"I have a friend whose life depends on me returning this key!" Caleb exclaimed.

"Why didn't you just tell us that, we could have helped you!" Cornelia argued.

"Maybe because I don't need the Guardians of the Veil to solve all my problems for me." Caleb grunted before Uncle slapped him on the head. "OW!"

"Has rebel leader forgotten that castle is domain of evil?!" Uncle questioned. "One more thing; how can you best Phobos if you face him by accident?"

"Um… I kinda did say the castle is under heavier guard and…" Aldarn's eyes widened in surprise as he just picked up what Caleb just said. "These are the Guardians?!" Aldarn pointed in surprise to the group.

"Well, five of them are. The rest are warriors or wizards from Earth who are helping them out." Caleb answered.

"Yeah… um hi. Nice to meet you." Will said.

"Oh I… I'm honored." Aldarn bowed his head out of respect.

"See? Your friend has batter manners than you." Uncle pointed to Caleb who simply groaned as he rubbed his forehead.

"Okay, so we need to return this key to save your friend." Jackie said, making it clear that they are going to help whether Caleb liked it or not.

"But how are we going to sneak in if it's so heavily guarded?" Tohru wondered.

"Let's just walk right through the front door." Jade said as she gestured to a large stack of hay and an empty carriage with a horse at the reigns.

Everyone looked in wide-eyed surprise at the convenience. "That'll work." Irma said.

* * *

After taking the uniforms from the unconscious guards; the disguised Caleb and Aldarn escorted the horse-drawn basket filled with large hay, which was able to cover Will, Jackie, Jade, Irma, Cornelia, Taranee, Hay Lin, Uncle, and even Tohru as they crossed the bridge toward the castle's entrance.

"Hay, for Prince Phobos' horses." The disguised Caleb presented to the sentry at the gate. Everyone hiding in the hay remained silent as the sentry gave the okay to pass through, which they all did without any suspicion whatsoever.

* * *

_Dungeon_

Vathek was thrown to the ground by Raythor and a Lurden. "The key has not been found, but you knew that didn't you? It's time, traitor!" Vathek simply sighed as he seemed to accept his imminent fate.

* * *

The disguised Caleb and Aldarn led the hooded Will, Jackie, Irma, Jade, Taranee, Cornelia, Uncle, Tohru, Hay Lin, and Cornelia down a large hallway near the castle's main entrance. So far, they haven't run into any guards yet.

"This place gives me the creeps." Will said. "Let's just hide the key and get out without being noticed."

"Oh yeah, that's gonna be real easy with such a big group tagging along." Caleb grumbled.

"Hello? This group saved your life last time we were here!" Jade stated.

"Please, let us not make too much noise." Jackie tried to calm the group.

"Unfortunately, we can't just hide the key." Aldarn said. "It had to be hidden in a specific spot before. But it's been too long, and they may already have Vathek waiting to be executed right now."

"Well then let's just find this Vathek and get out here." Jade said.

"Yes, that's probably the best plan." Tohru agreed.

As they tried to sneak around, Irma reached into an itchy spot in the cloak and pulled out what appeared to be a large tick. "Uh… is this small blood-sucking insect what I think it is?"

"Don't say anything. Or they'll hear Taranee screaming back at school." Will whispered.

"Quiet." Uncle said in a hiss. "Forces of Darkness lurk here. We must be very cautious."

As the group stopped around a corner, Cornelia ended up walking a bit further up, scratching the itchy cloak. "You know, I just hope this is wool or linen because I don't know what it is about synthetic fibers, but they give me such a…" She however, stopped once she realized she was standing right at the entrance way to a large mess hall filled with almost a hundred guards and Lurdens.

The creatures were quick to notice her presence as they gave off alarming roars while the guards quickly picked up their weapons. Everyone else came by and saw what kind of trouble they were in right now.

Jackie gave a slight gasp at the number of monsters in front of them. "Bad day."

"Yeah, for them!" Jade smirked. "Will, say the magic words."

The redhead took out the Heart of Kandrakar. **"Guardians Unite!"**

With another flashy transformation, the five girls had transformed into WITCH and flew directly at the charging horde; with Jackie, Jade, Tohru, and Uncle close behind.

Aldarn looked in amazement. "They really are the Guardians… Incredible!"

"Watch out!" Caleb was able to draw a sword and block an axe-strike from a guard to save his friend. "Fight now, be amazed later!" Caleb stated.

Aldarn shook his head and drew his sword as well to get into the fight to.

Jackie ran through a line of guards and Lurdens, ducking, jumping, and avoiding every axe and sword that came his way. "Bad day! Bad day! Bad day! Bad day!" He said repeatedly with each dodge. He slid underneath another strike as he took off his cloak and used it to cover and wrap around the face of one guard and spun his body around to knock down the enemies that were close to him before pushing him forward to knock down three more charging Lurdens.

Jade found herself stuck in the middle of several Lurdens and guards, but Hay Lin was quick to fly in and pick up her friend just as two enemies came in and accidentally clashed their heads together.

"Oooh, that's gotta hurt." Jade winced with a smirk.

Taranee spun her hands around as several enemies surrounded her as well. "I control the power; the power doesn't control me!" She told herself as she created two large flames in each of her hands. She spun her body around to create a circle of flame to keep the guards back as Taranee took to the air with her wings and threw down a large vortex of fire at her enemies. The flames knocked them all down and made their weapons so hot they had to drop them or else get serious burns.

Tohru delivered a punch to send one guard flying and smashing into the ceiling before grabbing a Lurden by its legs and using the creature as a living weapon to smack and knock down three more guards before throwing him all the way to the other side of the mess hall.

Uncle stood and wasn't afraid in the least, even as a dozen guards and Lurdens approached him with deadly intent. "So, you want a piece of Uncle?" He took out his dried lizard and a blowfish and fired blasts of chi-magic from them almost like magic pistols, each blast knocking down every enemy that was close to them.

Cornelia flew and landed on a table that was surrounded by several enemies herself. She tried to think of any earth-items she could use. No sand, no flowers, but… Wait don't plants and wood come from earth as well? She smiled, realizing the wooden table she was standing on. She smirked as she used her powers to bring the table up and controlled it like a puppet as the table spun around, its legs punching and knocking back the enemies that were nearby.

"Kay, I know I need control and discipline and all that." Irma said as several enemies were coming toward her. "But who says you can't go all out?" She smirked almost evilly as she shot her hands forward to create a stream of water to blast her enemies back. She then trapped her enemies in a large sphere of water which she hovered in the air before purposely losing control and letting the water explode to send all the previously trapped enemies flying everywhere.

Will took a combative stance as one guard approached her, she ducked underneath his sword and grabbed both his hands before pulling him over her body and used her enhanced strength to throw him far and into two more approaching guards. Another guard tried to attack, but she used her wings to fly above the axe-strike and gave an airborne cartwheel kick to his face to send him flying to the ceiling before giving a roundhouse to knock back two more Lurdens.

"Flying magic Kung Fu." She said to herself. "I could get used to this."

Hay Lin flew Jade to a safer place near the corner as they saw Caleb and Aldarn being cornered by a group of guards. Jade noticed the large chandelier that was over the guards and smirked. "Hay Lin, I don't think I like the decorations here."

The Air Guardian noticed what Jade was pointing to and smirked. "Then let's get rid of it." She created an air-sphere in her hand and compressed it into an air-disk which she threw toward the chain connecting the chandelier to the ceiling, which severed on contact and fell to crash into the guards. Hay Lin and Jade high-fived at their success.

Will and Jackie found themselves back-to-back as they took down several more Lurdens, only to be startled by an 'Aiya!' as they turned to see a guard grabbing Uncle and holding his sword close to his neck.

"Get back! Or the old man gets it!" The guard warned.

Jackie glared at the guard threatening his uncle, when Will suddenly got an idea. "Hey Uncle, how do you spray for bugs again?"

Uncle got her message. "Oh, like this!" He stomped hard on the guard's foot, possibly breaking it. The guard yelled in pain as he let go of Uncle and held his broken foot. "One more thing." Uncle told the guard before delivering a palm strike to his chest, causing him to fall unconscious.

Will smiled. "Go Uncle." Even Jackie smiled as he rubbed Will's hair.

With several more punches and kicks, swords slices, blasts of fire, wind, water, and Chi-Magic, as well as a 'living table', pretty much every guard in the room had fallen and laid beaten on the ground.

"Now that was fun." Irma voiced.

"That was… wow." Aldarn could hardly believe it. "Over a hundred guards and you took them all down like they were nothing."

Jade smirked. "Yep. Expect nothing less from J-WITCH."

"Celebrate later. We have a mission." Jackie reminded.

"That's right, follow me!" Caleb motioned for the whole group to follow him deeper into the castle.

* * *

Vathek looked deep into the Abyss of Shadows, it was impossible to see anything down there. This seemed to be his fate, but he was at least glad he did what he could to help the Rebellion.

"They say, you fall forever." Raythor said as he stood with a Lurden. "Of course, we'll never know, but you will. Say hello to the other conspirators for me!"

"Why don't you tell them yourself!"

Raythor turned around in surprise to see Jade's foot before it made contact with his face, knocking him out. The Lurden was about to attack but felt a pinch on its neck before it fell to the ground in unconsciousness as well, curtesy of Uncle.

Everyone else came in, but before Vathek could even ask what was going on, he recognized his two comrades. "Caleb! Aldarn!" He grabbed both of them by the shoulders in a near crushing embrace.

"Easy! Easy!" Aldarn winced along with Caleb. "It's good to see you to Vathek."

The blue giant let go of both his comrades as Caleb introduced his companions. "My good friend Vathek, these are the Guardians of the Veil, and warriors of Earth known as the Chan Clan."

There were several 'Hi's and 'Hello's from everyone, save for Uncle who simply nodded.

"Whoa big guy, you look like the coolest rebel ever." Jade smiled, taking a liking to Vathek's big and muscular appearance.

"Uh… thank you…?" Vathek wasn't sure how to respond to that complement.

"I brought the key." Caleb took out the manacle key, but Vathek sighed knowing it wouldn't do any good.

"Too late. They've searched everywhere, they know it's not here. Its sudden appearance would do me no good now."

"Then let's just get out of here." Irma said.

"We still need someone inside Phobos' ranks however." Aldarn replied. "If he finds the true heir before we do, it may be too late to stop him."

Will began to think as she looked to the knocked out Raythor and an idea popped in her head. She snapped her fingers. "I think I got it! Call out an alarm."

"What?" Vathek didn't understand what was going on.

"Scream for help. You know, 'intruders! Guardians!'" Will explained. "Caleb give me the key, Jackie punch Vathek."

"Excuse me?" Jackie was quite surprised with that request.

Jade saw what Will was doing. "Oh, I get it. The old switcharoo. Make the other guy look like the real spy."

Everyone seemed to get it and it was actually a rather brilliant idea. Caleb gave Will the key as Vathek called the alarm.

"GUARDIANS! INTRUDERS IN THE CASTLE! HELP!"

Will quickly hid the key in the unconscious Raythor's armor just as the alarm horn was blown, alerting the entire castle. Jackie walked up to Vathek.

"Sorry about this."

"Do what you have to do." Vathek understood. Jackie nodded before delivering a punch to Vathek's face to knock him down. Jackie winched as he waved his hand, his knuckles sore.

"Don't move." Will whispered to Vathek as the group of heroes turned around to see a large gathering of guards and Lurdens, personal being led by Cedric and Daolon Wong.

"You." Cedric hissed as he glared at the intruders, particularly Tohru who narrowed his eyes at Cedric in return.

"Sorry guys, no time for a rematch!" Jade told the enemy forces. "Adios!" She shouted as Cornelia used her powers to bring down several stalagites to create a large dust cloud while Hay Lin created a large whirlwind around her body to spread the dust cloud out even further.

"Do not let them escape!" Wong tried to call out, but it was already too late. Will flew Jackie and Jade, Taranee carried Uncle and Aldarn, Cornelia carried Caleb, and both Hay Lin and Irma carried Tohru as they flew downward and made their escape through the same way as before.

The dust cleared to reveal the heroes were long gone, save for Vathek who remained as still as possible, a bruise on his face to make it look like he was attacked as well.

"Search all of the tunnels!" Wong ordered the guards and Lurdens as they turned around to run and search.

Raythor regained consciousness but looked in shock to see Cedric and Wong both approach him. "We… we were taken by surprise! Must have come to save this traitor." He said, referring to Vathek.

"Then why did they _leave _him?" Cedric questioned. "And why did _he _call the alarm?!" He picked up Raythor by his armor, but as he did, the key that Will slipped in had fallen out.

"Well, well." Wong said as he picked up the key. "What do we have here?"

Cedric saw the key and hissed towards Raythor. "No! I… I didn't!" Raythor pleaded as Cedric threw him towards Wong. "Take him to Phobos."

Wong did just that as he grabbed Raythor's shoulder and vanished with him in a puff of blue smoke. Vathek stood up as Cedric looked down toward him, convinced of his 'innocence'.

"Alright, back to your post." He ordered before slithering away. Vathek sighed. Though he was relieved his life was spared and his cover would remain intact, there was a twinge of sympathy for Raythor; knowing Phobos, he would not take this 'treachery' lightly.

* * *

_Phobos' Throne Room._

The dark prince looked in surprise to see Daolon Wong suddenly appear in the middle of his throne, along with Raythor, whom the dark wizard threw to the ground.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Phobos stood up from his throne.

"My prince, Vathek was innocent." Wong began. "But as it turns out, Raythor had the key all along." He presented the manacle key in his hand.

"What?!" Phobos exclaimed.

"My Prince, no! It's a lie! I never had it!" Raythor pleaded.

"The Guardians and Jackie Chan were here in the castle recently." Wong said, getting Phobos' attention. "But they left Vathek, the suspect, behind. Sighs show he was ambushed as well, and he called the alarm. If he was allied with the Rebellion, they would have brought him with them during their escape."

"If I was a traitor, they would have taken _me_ with them!" Raythor exclaimed. "But they left me behind!"

"Perhaps you aren't allied with the Rebellion, but you certainty aren't as loyal to the prince as you claim." Wong said. "Maybe seeking to claim the throne for yourself!"

"I would never!" Raythor yelled. "My Prince, you've known me since you were a boy! I was loyal to your mother and your father! I protected you when the entire kingdom turned against you! I would never betray you!"

"Evidence points to the contrary." Wong argued.

"Enough!" Phobos exclaimed, silencing the argument. "Raythor had the key?"

"Yes, Cedric can confirm this as well." Wong answered.

"My Prince… I… I don't…"

Raythor's please however fell on deaf ears. "Take him to the Abyss of Shadows." Phobos ordered, causing Raythor to look in utter horror.

"No!" He shouted as Wong's three Dark Chi Warriors suddenly appeared around him and ceased him. "No! Please! PHOBOS!" Gon, Ren, and Chui all vanished with Raythor and would throw him into the same pit he almost threw Vathek into.

Phobos sat back down on his throne as his own hands began to shake. His face was hardened, though his eyes twitched. Raythor, the only person who believed him when he said he didn't kill his parents has betrayed him?! This was unbelievable and unacceptable! Phobos trusted Raythor, almost considered him a friend…. But this….?

"My Prince." Wong tried to sound as humble as possible. "I understand this must be hard for you, considering how much you trusted and respected Raythor. However, in times such as this, it is important to know that you can never really trust anyone…"

Wong was suddenly blasted across the chamber by a blast of magic energy shot from Phobos' hand, his face filled with rage.

"Your advice is noted." Phobos hissed. "Now leave me!"

Wong struggled to pull himself up. "Yes… my Prince." He growled as he left the room, leaving Phobos alone with his thoughts.

As the dark prince sat in silence, he came to his own conclusion that would only drive him further into darkness. _"I trust… no one!"_

* * *

_Earth – The Next Day_

"Well come in guys!" Jade said to Will, Irma, Cornelia, and Taranee as they stepped into the shop. "Welcome to Uncle's Rare Finds!" She presented Uncle's titular show, which looked almost exactly like it did back in San Francisco. "What you think?"

The four girls looked around as Jackie, Uncle, and Tohru walked into the main room as well. "Looks kinda nice." Will said. "Almost like a mini-museum."

"Like a knick-knack shop without the snow globes." Irma said. Though she probably wouldn't buy anything from here, it seemed like a nice play to hang out in.

"Some of this stuff looks okay." Cornelia looked around. "But I'm not into that junky old stuff… OW!"

"Do not disrespect Uncle's shop!" Uncle exclaimed after giving yet another dope-slap to Cornelia, causing Jade, Will, and Irma to laugh at her expense.

"Whoa." Taranee's eyes were fixed on a certain artifact; a purple vase with a golden Chinese dragon pattern on it. "Never seen a vase like this before. It's definitely Chinese, maybe even from the Ling Dynasty."

"Ah." Uncle smiled. "You know a thing or two about antiques. Yes, this is Uncle's one of a kind vase. Uncle only acquires unique antiques."

"Yeah, probably do a lot better with the real stuff than those cheap replicas people make." Taranee said.

"Cheap replicas! Those people have no respect for history!" Uncle agreed.

"Ugh, tell me about it." Taranee rolled her eyes. "I see things sold online saying they're the real deal, well they're not."

As the two conversed; everyone else looked in minor surprise. "It would seem those two are going to get along just fine." Jackie smiled.

"God help us all." Cornelia muttered, hopping that Taranee didn't turn out like the old man.

"Yeah, I think this be a cool place to hang out." Will said.

"Just be careful with the books and artifacts in the back." Tohru advised. "That's where all the magical items are stored."

"Yeah, don't wanna accidentally sell Pandora's box." Jade joked.

"You have Pandora's box?" Irma questioned.

"Jade was kidding." Jackie assured. "But either way, you are all welcomed here any time."

"Thanks Jackie." Will smiled.

Tohru noticed a certain girl wasn't with them. "Where's Hay Lin?"

* * *

_The Silver Dragon_

The aforementioned girl was in the basement of her family's restaurant, along with her grandmother and Caleb as they watched her dress someone up.

"At first, I wasn't sure how it would look with your skin tone. But I was right!" Hay Lin smiled as Blunk looked like he was dressed like an old-fashioned airplane pilot. "You're much more of a Spring than an Autumn!" She put a black robe over him.

"He looks like an overgrown raisin." Caleb cracked.

Hay Lin pouted while Blunk gave a slight glare. "Caleb jealous." The passling said. "Blunk, the bomb!" He jumped off the stool as his robe pulled on a record player, accidentally playing it as a classic rock song boomed through the speakers. Blunk and Hay Lin immediately danced to the tune.

"You go Blunk!" Hay Ling laughed with him as they continued to dance.

Even Yan Lin danced with them. "Hey, shall we 'get down', Rebel Boy?" The old woman teased Caleb as she danced along with her granddaughter and the Passling.

Caleb smiled but shook his head. "I thought all Earthlings were strange. But I'm beginning to think it's just the females."

**Done.**

**Thanks again for your patience. So quite a few things happened here. The Guardians and the Chan Clan have managed to save Vathek, but have also accidentally doomed Raythor as well (and we all know where that leads to later on).**

**The girls are also just now starting their training, and have already begun to take what they learned and applied it into battle, especially in Will's case as she will need the most Kung Fu training considering she doesn't have an elemental power (yet). **

**Also, Uncle has officially opened his shop up in Heatherfield and you can expect J-WITCH and their friends to hang out there a lot, even Taranee and Uncle are starting to get along.**

**There is also one important thing to note here. Phobos did NOT kill his parents. It is never really explained how his parents died in either the comics or the TV show, but it is assumed that Phobos killed them in the cannon, maybe he did, but it was never confirmed. However, in this particular story, he did NOT. Raythor was the only person who believed he didn't, but now, it seems Phobos doesn't trust anyone. **

**One thing WITCH never really did was explain Phobos' character; true he was very smart and conniving, but there really wasn't any motivation behind his actions, it made him seem like a one-dimensional villain compared to a certain Sorceress who would appear later in the second season of the show. But in my story, I actually plan to give Phobos more depth and add to his character a bit. You'll begin to see it as the story progresses.**

**But one question remains: if Phobos didn't kill his parents, who did? I'll let you take a guess. I won't say anything for a while, however. **

**One more thing (LOL): The next chapter is going to be an original chapter that will primarily focus on elements from "Jackie Chan Adventures" as we are introduced to a certain group of crooks being led by a certain man in a green suit who has experience with magic himself. (Hint, hint).**

**See you then. Thanks for all your support. **


	4. Need a Dark Hand?

**Hi everyone. Thanks again for your patience, this is my own original chapter that I've been wanting to write for some time. Here we are finally introduced to the Dark Hand as they enter the fray and they are bringing along some magical mayhem as well. So, without further delay, let us begin.**

**Need a Dark Hand?**

Section 13, a specialized law enforcement agency utilized to take down powerful criminals such as crime lords, and other deadly individuals; however, underneath its professional appearance, this organization also deals with magic on the sly as its underground base in San Francisco is used to hold powerful magical artifacts. With it being the dead of night, no one would expect any real movement within the facility.

That is until an air-duct opened from the ceiling and four ropes came down; sliding down each rope as a man, all of whom wore black suits. Two were rather skinny, one had a pair of yellow sunglasses and the other had red hair; another one was rather large with pale skin, while the last one was the largest, very imposing, with long red hair and a thin mustache and beard.

"Ow!" Ratso accidentally yelled after landing hard on his rear.

"Sshh!" Finn and Chow hushed him so they wouldn't be spotted.

Led by Hak Foo, the four of them slid along a wall where a single guard was on patrol with a flashlight around the corner. Hak Foo motioned them to be quiet as he quickly and quietly jumped from his spot and landed behind the guard.

"Silent Leopard Kill!" Hak Foo said in a whisper as he put the guard in a sleeper hold to knock him out before taking his ID card as the guard fell to the floor.

In just a short time span, the four crooks came to a large vault door where Hak Foo put in the stolen ID card into the lock-panel on the side to unlock it. The vault door opened to reveal in the center of the room was a single glass container with twelve small stone items inside; each one bore the mark of a specific animal of the Chinese Zodiac: the Dog, the Rat, the Tiger, the Pig, the Snake, the Monkey, the Rooster, the Sheep, the Horse, the Ox, the Rabbit, and finally the Dragon.

"Score." Finn smirked.

"Sweet!" Chow rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

"The Talismans!" Ratso said excitedly.

"And with them, unlimited power is finally within our grasp!" Hak Foo exclaimed as he delivered a hand-chop to the container, shattering the glass. But the second he did, alarms began to sound off all throughout the facility.

Within just a few short seconds, pretty much every agent in Section 13 had all gathered at the entrance to the vault and pointed their guns and the four intruders with Captain Black at the lead.

"Hands in the air, punks! Game's over!" Captain Black ordered.

Out of instinct; Finn, Ratso, and Chow threw their hands up in the air, but Hak Foo did not.

"Oh no, the game has only just begun." Hak Foo smiled evilly as he already put most of the Talismans in a sack, but held the Rabbit Talisman in his hand. The insignia began to glow as Hak Foo used its power of speed to quickly grab his cohorts and make a quick escape.

"Black Tiger Escapes Eagle's Nest!" Hak Foo shouted as he used the Rabbit Talisman's super speed to barrel his way past the agents before they could even blink; knocking them all down as Hak Foo ran through the facility; Finn, Ratso, and Chow screaming and holding onto Hak Foo for dear life. While running, Hak Foo also took out the Ox Talisman and used the strength it provided to literally smash through the wall at the other end of the facility and escape out into the street.

All the agents groaned as they tried to pull themselves up, while Captain Black looked in annoyance in the direction the Dark Hand criminals escaped before groaning as he slapped his hand down his face.

* * *

Valmont stood in a warehouse, looking out the window as a storm continued through the night, rain splashing down on the window he looked out with lightning flashing throughout the sky. He stood patiently, his cane in his hands as he held himself in a very professional manner. He heard the door open behind him.

"I trust you have succeeded in your mission?" He asked turning around to see Hak Foo standing tall, while Finn, Ratso, and Chow looked incredibly tired.

"We have." Hak Foo bowed his head.

"It was rough Big V…" Finn said in between breaths along with his two pals.

"..almost got caught…." Ratso added.

"But we got em." Chow finished.

Hak Foo walked toward Valmont and opened the bag to show the talismans, causing the crime lord to smile evilly.

"Excellent, now that we have the Talismans, and now that I am free from that pestilent lizard Shendu…" Valmont reached into the bag to pull out the Dragon Talisman. "The Dark Hand shall rise again!" HE held it high as the dragon insignia on the talisman began to glow.

* * *

_Two Days Later – Heatherfield_

"Valmont?!" Jackie exclaimed as he spoke over the phone with Captain Black.

"_I'm afraid so, Jackie." _Captain Black began. _"Two days ago, his goons broke into Section 13 and were able to make off with the Talismans. Since then, they've been hitting every major bank and museum across the country; making their way closer towards the East Coast, specifically New York."_

"I understand banks, but why museums?" Jackie asked.

"_Best guess, they're looking to sell the artifacts they've stolen on the black market and use the finances to rebuild their crime syndicate." _Captain Black answered._ "And if I had to guess why their heading to the East Coast, they're probably thinking you still live in San Francisco. Meaning, they won't expect you to be there."_

"But… I live in Heatherfield now, not New York." Jackie said.

"_I know, but satellite tracking shows that the Dark Hand are gonna end up going through Heatherfield to get to their next destination." _Captain Black informed. _"I'm already on my way there in Section 13's fastest aircraft. We should be there later this afternoon. Look, I know you're eager to get on with your life my friend, but I need your help. Jackie, please."_

Jackie sighed as he knew his friend was right. He knew the Talismans and Valmont better than anyone; he's dealt with them multiple times before, so if he could stop them now, hopefully Valmont and the other members of the Dark Hand could finally be arrested.

"Alright, I'll meet you later." Jackie said.

"_Thank you Jackie; see you soon." _Captain Black hung up.

Jackie opened the door out of his room but was surprised to see his niece already there.

"Hey Jackie."

"Wha…!? Jade!? You're supposed to be getting ready for school!"

"I'm all packed up and everything." Jade showed her backpack to show she was already packed. "So, Valmont's back and he's packing the Talismans again, huh?"

Jackie knew he couldn't work his way around this, Jade was both smart and cunning, too much for her own good. "Yes, it would seem so."

"Well, we gotta surprise for him." Jade smirked. "As Uncle always said 'magic must defeat magic'. And we've got five super powered magic weapons ready to knock those losers down a peg! Let's see what happens when the Dark Hand meets J-WITCH!"

Jackie looked in surprise at that proclamation. "You want to have Will and the others fight Valmont?!"

"Duh." Jade said. "I mean, come on! They've already taken on a dark prince, an evil wizard, and a giant snake-man in another dimension! Phobos may be no Shendu, but Valmont's got nothing on Phobos, Talismans or not. Plus, he's got those three stooges with him, what are they gonna do?"

"Hak Foo is with them as well." Jackie said, causing Jade to look a bit nervous.

"Oooh… yeah, he could be trouble." Jade groaned before getting back on track. "But you've taken that guy down before. You take Hak Foo, the girls take down Moe, Larry, and Curly; and we all kick Valmont's butt together. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy."

"Jade, look I have no doubt the girls could hold their own against the Dark Hand, but it's not the same as fighting Phobos." Jackie began to explain.

"Why not?" Jade questioned.

"Think about, Valmont has plenty of resources at his disposal." Jackie continued. "If he should learn of the girls' identities, it could put their families in danger."

"But…"

"Jade, I can handle Valmont and the Dark Hand with Section 13; but you have to promise me you won't involve Will or any of the others. Promise me that." Jackie told her.

The girl gave a deep sigh, knowing how stubborn Jackie could be. "Okay, I promise I won't get them involved."

Jackie smiled. "Good, now let's get you downstairs. We need to get you to school."

As Jackie led his niece downstairs, she began to pout a bit. She wasn't dense, she knew that Valmont was indeed dangerous, but the Guardians are just as dangerous themselves. Suddenly an idea came to her, that caused her to smirk. Jackie had her promise that she wouldn't get the girls directly involved, but that wasn't to say, she couldn't at least _warn _them.

* * *

_Sheffield Institute – Lunch Time_

"The Dark Hand?" Will questioned as she, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin all sat with Jade at a table in the school's cafeteria.

"Yep, they used to be a major crime syndicate back in San Francisco, now they're just some thugs hopping to scrape by." Jade explained.

"What kind of a name is 'the Dark Hand' anyway?" Cornelia questioned. "Like something out of a comic book. They're trying to advertise that they're evil?"

"I kinda like it." Hay Lin said. "Sounds like the name of a group of super villains."

"Jade didn't you say they were involved with demons or something?" Taranee asked.

"Well, sort of." Jade gave the sum of it. "Shendu basically tricked them into getting his Talismans, then he turned into a ghost and possessed their boss, Valmont, and tried to get him to open these portals to let his demon family out, but we beat them every time."

"Sounds like fun." Irma said. "So, they got superpowers to or what?"

"They got the Talismans again." Jade explained as she reached into her backpack and pulled out a scroll. "Each one has its own special power." She showed them the picture of the twelve Talismans, all in a circle.

"Hey, isn't that scroll from your Uncle's shop?" Taranee asked.

"I only borrowed it, and I'm gonna put it back later." Jade said before getting back on point. "Okay, so there are twelve Talismans in total, each one for one animal of the Chinese Zodiac." She began to point out each individual Talisman. "The Dragon Talisman is combustion; you basically shoot fire from it."

"That seems pretty straight forward." Will said. "Dragons do breathe fire."

"Right." Jade continued. "The Ox Talismans gives you super strength, the Rabbit Talisman is super speed, the Rooster is levitation; oh, and if you put Rabbit and Rooster together, you can fly."

"That's so cool!" Hay Lin beamed.

"We fly already, I don't really see why we'd need those for that when we can just transform." Cornelia said.

"Anyway…" Jade continued. "The Snake Talisman makes you invisible, the Monkey Talisman is shapeshifting, the Sheep Talisman is astral projection, the Pig gives you heat-beam eyes…"

"Whoa, whoa, back up!" Irma interrupted. "Heat-beam eyes? Like heat vision?!"

"Yeah, I gotta agree with Irma." Will said. "I get Ox is strength and rabbit is Speed, but since when do pigs shoot laser eyes?!"

"I don't know, I didn't make this thing up." Jade stated. "So, as I was saying, the Rat Talisman is motion to the motionless, you basically bring statues and stuff to life."

"Oh, so for my next history test, I could just use that at Mount Rushmore and talk to the presidents." Irma said.

"Oooh, what if you used that bring the dead back to life!" Hay Lin wondered. "That would be so killer for Halloween!"

"Well, I don't know about that one." Jade said. "I've never seen it happen, and I'm not in the mood to raise any zombies."

"So, what about the other Talismans?" Taranee asked.

"Right; well the Dog Talisman is immortality, and the Horse is healing." Jade continued.

"Isn't that kind of redundant though?" Cornelia asked.

"No; immortality means you just can't die; it still hurts though." Jade explained. "Healing can fix up any injuries you got from paper cuts, to broken bones, you can even cure diseases."

"Wow, magic cure for cancer. Cool." Irma said.

"And finally, the Tiger Talisman, which represents balance." Jade said.

"What do you mean balance?" Will asked. "As in, you can never fall."

"Eh, _spiritual _balance." Jade corrected. "Like Yin-and-Yang. It's a pretty useless power on its own, but this one time when it broke, Jackie got split into two different Jackies; one good, one bad."

That got all five of the girls' attention. "An evil Jackie Chan?" Irma questioned. "Yeah I don't see it."

"Kinda hard to imagine, considering Jackie's such a good guy." Taranee agreed.

"Oh, Jackie-Dark wasn't evil, just a real jerk." Jade pouted. "But yeah, that's it: The Twelve Talismans of the Chinese Zodiac."

"And this bad guy named Valmont has all of them?" Will asked.

"Yep." Jade nodded as she put the scroll back in her backpack.

"So why tell us all this?" Cornelia asked.

"Oh, I know! Jackie wants us to fight these guys!" Hay Lin beamed excitedly.

"Actually no." Jade said, causing the five to look at her in confusion, even saying 'huh?' in response. "Apparently, Uncle Jackie says Valmont's resources make him dangerous, so he had me promised that I not get you involved."

"But you literally just told us…" Taranee.

"I was _warning_ you guys." Jade began to explain. "Apparently the Dark Hand is gonna come through Heatherfield soon, so if you guys see fire in the skies or flying cars, you know what's causing it. But like I said, I'm only warning you caused Jackie had _me _promise not to involve you. You guys didn't make any promises like that, and what _you _decide to do with what I just told you guys, is up to _you_." She finished with a smirk.

The five girls looked towards each other as Cornelia and Irma both smirked.

"Wow Jade, you're quite the evil mastermind." Cornelia said with amusement.

"Yep, you're a real sly fox." Irma smirked as well.

"I try." Jade put her hands behind her head with pride.

Will however didn't seem as enthusiastic. "But if Jackie says…"

"Hey, you guys took own a dark lord in an evil dimension and won." Jade said. "Honestly, the only thing Valmont's got going for him is a guy called Hak Foo, who is pretty good with Kung Fu, but other than him; the other guys are total morons. If Jackie, Uncle, and Tohru can beat em up, I'm sure you guys can to."

"Well, speaking from a technical standpoint…" Taranee began. "It would help us to use our powers in real fights. Experience does help."

"Well I'm all for it!" Hay Lin beamed. "I mean, we've got superpowers and we're fighting real life bad guys…. We're basically superheroes right now!"

"From what Jade says, these guys won't even be a real challenge." Irma also said.

"Plus, we know what kind of powers these Talisman-things got, so we should be alright." Cornelia voiced.

Will looked around and saw all five of her friends bearing confident expressions. Soon, the leader of the Guardians followed with a confident smile of her own as she clenched her fist. "Let's do it."

* * *

Sometime later, Jackie had already met up with Captain Black as they rode in a Humvee with several other Section 13 transports behind them.

"Augustus, I'm surprised they let you come all the way across the country." Jackie said. "Isn't Heatherfield outside Section 13's jurisdiction?"

"I told them about Valmont's escape and that he was packing dangerous weapons, and yes I was able to avoid using the m-word, so they gave me the green light." Captain Black responded.

"But are you sure the Dark Hand is really here? Valmont could have chosen a different route instead of traveling through Heatherfield." Jackie asked. However, before Captain Black could respond, they both saw a large explosion several blocks away, almost in direct response to Jackie's question.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure they're here." Captain Black said before he drove off in that direction, followed by the rest of Section 13.

* * *

Multiple people ran away from the bank, all screaming and shouting as Chow shot blasts of fire up into the sky with the Dragon Talisman to try and keep everyone back. Once everyone was cleared, he turned around and used the strength of the Ox Talisman to punch a hole into the building, revealing a large vault door, which he broke down with another blast from the Dragon Talisman to reveal a large room with huge bags and sacks of money.

"Pay day fellas!" Chow said with a grin as Finn, and Ratso, walked forward. Using the Rooster Talisman, Finn telekinetically picked up multiple bags and began to load them into a large truck that Hak Foo was driving as Ratso used the speed from the Rabbit Talisman to zoom in and grab the other bags. It took now less than two minutes for the entire vault to be cleared.

"Yeah! That's what I'm talking about!" Finn shouted as he high-fived his buddies. "We're never losing these things again." He opened his coat to reveal the four Talismans he had: Pig, Rooster, Dog, and Tiger. Ratso and Chow did the same thing with their jackets or coats to show their Talismans; Ratso had the Snake, Rabbit, Horse, and Sheep; while Chow had the Dragon, Ox, Monkey, and Rat.

"Yeah, and we bagged it all without any trouble from…" Ratso didn't finish as they all looked in surprise to see multiple SWAT vehicles, all owned by Section 13 drive up. The lead Humvee stopped as the passenger door opened to reveal Jackie Chan. "…That guy." Ratso moaned as Finn, and Chow looked in disbelief.

Captain Black stepped out next as he pulled out a mega-phone. "Freeze punks!" He shouted to the Dark Hand goons as Finn and Ratso responded with eyebeams and fire blasts respectively at the Section 13 agents, forcing them all to run and take cover as most of their vehicles were completely totaled.

Jackie and Captain Black tried to get away but were caught off guard by Ratso who zoomed in with super speed from the Rabbit Talisman and turned invisible with the Snake Talisman. Jackie and Black tried to form back-to-back to prepare themselves; but Captain Black was the first to be knocked down by an invisible punch. Acting quickly, Jackie ducked and swept his feet and was able to knock the invisible Ratso down, causing him to turn visible as he hit the ground.

However, Jackie didn't have time to recuperate as he had to take cover once again from Finn's eyebeams while also using the Rooster Talisman to hover in the air and blast Jackie.

"Hey, hey, we gotta go!" Chow exclaimed as he was quick to help up Ratso, who used the speed from the Rooster talisman to carry both him and Chow back to the truck, which Finn flew towards. Hak Foo immediately pressed on the gas pedal to drive the truck away from the bank.

Jackie helped up the groaning Captain Black as he could only sigh. "Bad day."

* * *

Meanwhile; Will, Taranee, Cornelia, Irma, and Hay Lin had all gathered together in an alleyway near a construction site, at least six blocks west of the bank were the explosion just went off.

"Is anyone else totally excited about this!?" Hay Lin beamed. "I know I said it before, but we're real superheroes right now!"

"Hay Lin, try to focus." Taranee told her. "These are dangerous criminals with powerful magic items. It's not a game."

"Pretty sure though these guys aren't any worse than Phobos." Cornelia said.

"Yeah, you can take them in their sleep." Jade said as she suddenly appeared next to the blonde.

"Glad you agree with me Jade." Cornelia smiled before her eyes widened as she looked towards the girl in surprise. "Jade?! How did you get here?!"

Jade gave her titular scoff. "Like I was gonna miss this."

Irma smirked. "Houdini's got nothing on you Jade."

"I try." Jade smirked as well.

"Guys get your heads in the game. I think I see them." Will got everyone's attention as she looked out the alleyway and onto the street to see the truck speeding in their direction.

"Yeah, that's probably them." Jade remarked, considering the truck was driving like a bat out of hell. "Now let's get this party started."

Will took out the crystal pendant known as the Heart of Kandrakar and said the magic words. **"Guardians Unite!"**

* * *

"What the heck is Chan doing here?!" Finn exclaimed as Hak Foo continued to drive. "Thought he was still in San Fran!"

"Maybe on vacation or something?" Ratso guessed with a shrug.

"Doubt it. Black must have called him." Chow guessed.

"You are all cowards for running away like this!" Hak Foo scolded. "You wield the powers of the Talismans, yet you don't even stand your ground?!"

"Hey, you wanna take on Chan the Terminator, be my guest!" Finn protested.

As they continued to argue, they failed to notice a fire-hydrant on a sidewalk beginning to shake before it suddenly burst; a powerful stream of water sending the outlet cap blasting out like a bullet, slamming into the right front wheel of the truck, causing the entire vehicle to spiral out of control. All four men screamed as the truck veered off the road and straight into a construction site, which thankfully didn't have any workers around, and crashed hard on its side right into a stack of girders.

The door at the top opened as all four members of the Dark Hand climbed out with groans before falling on the ground.

"Excuse me boys, I think you forgot to pay for all that." They looked up in surprise to see the five Guardians of the Veil floating above them. "But don't worry, we accept cash, check, or teeth." Irma finished with a smirk.

The four looked gob-smacked to say the least. "Uh… think I may have hit my head too hard but… are we seeing… fairies?" Ratso questioned.

"We've seen magic ninjas, dragons, and demons, so how come we're still not used to this?" Chow complained.

"It does not matter." Hak Foo stood up. "I shall pluck their wings like the insects they are!" He jumped high into the air. "Angry Crow Takes Flight!" He leapt and tried to deliver a kick, forcing the five flying girls to fly around and avoid it; but they had to fly even more to avoid the fire and eye beams shot at them by Finn and Chow respectively.

As the battle between the Guardians and the Dark Hand began, Jade made her way toward the construction site and watched with an eager grin. "Oh, this is gonna be good."

Using the Rooster Talisman, Finn chased after Hay Lin while trying to blast her with the laser beams from the Pig Talisman. They flew into the unfinished building; up and around the maze of girders. He continued to fly after her and blast in her direction; but Hay Lin was much too fast and nimble, avoiding every blast as she flew above, below, and around every girder she came across. After getting some distance away, Hay Lin twirled her body to form a windy tornado, pulling in Finn. When he was close enough, Hay Lin got rid of her twister as she delivered an airborne kick to Finn to knock him down onto an unfinished floor closer towards the ground.

Irma landed on the ground as she squared off with Ratso. "Uh… my momma told me never to hit girls."

"Well, that makes things easier." Irma said as she threw her hands forward to blast a torrent of water at Ratso, but he was able to quickly avoid it with the speed of the Rabbit Talisman and zoomed behind Irma. Before she could even react, he already held her in a tight bear hug.

"But a bear hug ain't exactly fighting." Ratso told her as Irma struggled in his grip.

"Just watch where you're grabbing!" Irma exclaimed before she flew into the air, with Ratso still hanging on. She then fell back to the ground, making sure Ratso took the impact; causing him to let go of Irma as she stood up. However, Ratso quickly flashed the Snake Talisman and vanished from sight, much to Irma's surprise.

"Oh, right. Invisibility." She groaned a bit in annoyance.

Chow used the Dragon Talisman to shoot blasts of fire at Taranee who flew to avoid each shot. "Nice trick." Taranee said. "But you're not the only one who plays with fire." She created a fireball in her hand before she threw it at Chow, forcing him to roll and avoid it. He retaliated with another fire blast at Taranee who threw more fire-balls at him. The bespectacled Guardian created one large fire ball and threw it at Chow who shot at it with another blast from the Dragon Talisman; both hit each other, resulting in an explosion with enough force to knock them both back.

Chow tried to pull himself up, but quickly noticed a small pile of girders near Taranee as she rubbed her head. He smirked with an idea as he pulled out both the Monkey and Rat Talismans; shooting the magic from them both at the girders; simultaneously transforming them into giant metal snakes and bringing them to life. Taranee gave a loud gasp as the metal snakes suddenly coiled themselves around her and lifted her into the air.

"Shapeshifting and motion to the motionless." Taranee grunted. "Yeah… that's a pretty good combo."

Will landed on a girder in the construction site that was fifteen feet off the ground and came face-to-face with Hak Foo as he jumped up on the same girder.

"Okay pal, just give up those Talisman-thingies, and no one gets hurt." Will tried to make a solid combat stance.

"You seek the Talismans, do you?" Hak Foo took his own Kung Fu stance as he motioned his hand for her to bring it. "One-on-one."

Cornelia flew in right beside Will. "How about _two_-on-one?" She challenged with a smirk of confidence before flying straight towards Hak Foo.

The red-haired man gave a warrior's yell as he leapt into the air. "Black Tiger Crushes Blonde Fairy!" He delivered an airborne kick to Cornelia to knock her down hard onto the ground; fortunately, she landed on a pile of sand, so the impact wasn't too hard.

"Cornelia!" Will was about to fly down and help her, but she just barely avoided a punch from Hak Foo who was on the attack. "Mad Monkey Kung Fu!" He threw a series of punches at her, which she tried to block and avoid using what little defensive techniques Jackie taught her and her own enhanced strength. "Snake Cuts Grass!" Hak Foo gave a sweeping kick to knock her off her feet and would have sent her falling off the girder, but she flapped her wings hard to halt her fall as she flew up at high-speeds and was able to deliver a flying-uppercut right into Hak Foo's jaw that sent him flying and falling off the girder, but he landed on his feet and was more than ready to attack again.

However, before Hak Foo could even make a move, he was suddenly forced back by a large mound of dirt that shot up from the ground, curtsey of an angry Cornelia. "Oh, you are gonna regret hitting me!"

Will flew down by her friend's side. "You doing okay?"

"I'll be much better after we take down this looser!" She used her earth-powers to solidify several mounds of sand which she sent directly at Hak Foo who actually ran towards them.

"Sword Slices Through Sand!" He gave several fierce chops that actually sliced through the mounds as he quickly ran towards the two Guardians. "Scorpion Stings Butterflies!" He tried to deliver two strikes toward Will and Cornelia, but they flew into the air to avoid them.

"Okay, he's gotta be making this stuff up." Will stated.

"Yeah, he sounds like one of those corny dubbed Kung Fu movies." Cornelia agreed before they both flew back down towards the fight.

Meanwhile; Captain Black was able to make it to the scene via a motorcycle, with Jackie riding on the back. However, right as they stopped, they looked in surprise to see the clash of elemental magic against the various Talisman powers. Jackie looked in shock while Captain Black's expression was more of gob smacked. Jackie's expression of shock however quickly turned into one of annoyance as he sighed.

"Jade."

Irma kept looking around for the invisible Ratso, only to be tripped and pushed to the ground by him. "Hey, I thought you said you don't hit girls!"

"I'm not!" The invisible Ratso protested. "I'm just tripping and pushing, that's not hitting."

Irma groaned as she tried to pick herself up but looked in minor surprise to see some footsteps in a small puddle. She smirked as an idea came into her mind. She flew up into the air and created a large ball of water in her hands before exploding it outward around the area like rain. She spotted water covering an invisible mass that was trying to brush it off.

"Awe, and I just got this cleaned." Ratso complained as he was spotted, leaving him open for Irma to fly in and deliver a kick to his chest to send him flying straight into a pile of roads and pipes. He had turned visible again, but his injuries were quickly healed by the Horse Talisman. However, Ratso felt something vibrate in his pocket. He took out his phone and answered it.

"_What in the world is taking you so long?!" _Valmont exclaimed from the other line.

"Uh… would you believe me if I told you we were fighting magical fairies?" Ratso asked nervously; only to hear a yell on the other line and a crash. It was probably Valmont throwing the phone to the floor and stomping on it in frustration.

Hay Lin meanwhile kept flying to avoid more laser eye blasts from Finn, who also telekinetically lifted several bricks and pipes via the Rooster Talisman and threw them at the airborne Hay Lin. "Catch!"

However, Hay Lin wasn't the least bit scared. She actually smiled as she created a large, spinning, air sphere that not only caught all the stuff thrown at her, but she even turned her body to spin like a top before throwing the stuff back at Finn. "Back at ya!"

Finn comically screamed as he hovered and flew, barley avoiding each item. He then looked angrily at Hay Lin before blasting at her again with his eyebeams from the Pig Talisman. Once again, Finn chased Hay Lin as he tried to blast at her. She flew up and then up even higher to avoid another blast, however, that one blast in particular hit an unmanned crane, causing it to loose its balance.

Hay Lin flew behind Finn, who turned around and happened to back underneath the crane that was already about to fall. Hay Lin noticed it and looked in worry.

"Look out! Behind you!" She tried to warn as the crane already began to fall.

"Yeah right, like I'm gonna fall for…" Finn suddenly turned around and looked in shock just as the crane hit him. He was able to fly and get some distance but was still nailed in the back by the extended part of the crane and fell till he hit the ground hard just in front of where the crane crashed.

Hay Lin flew down and looked at him with concern. "Hey, are you okay?"

Finn groaned with a dazed look in his eyes. "Immortality hurts."

Taranee appeared to be struggled in the grip of the metal snakes and looked to see Chow holding a girder like a baseball bat, no doubt using the strength of the Ox Talisman. "Sorry about this kid. But you should have stayed out of our way." Chow looked as though he was ready to clobber her, but Taranee actually smiled mischievously.

"Hey, quick science question. You know the melting point of steel?"

"What are you talking about?" Chow asked in confusion, only to look in shock to see the metal snakes around her melting away. Taranee had been using her fire element to increase her own body temperature to the point that it got too hot for the snakes, formerly girders, to stay solid as they melted in a pile of molten metal; Taranee smirked as she held two flames in her hands while Chow looked with a nervous smile.

"Shredding Lion Claws!" Hak Foo attempted to strike Will, but she was able to avoid all the attacks. He was suddenly thrown in the air by a burst of dirt from Cornelia, but he was able to straighten himself out as he fell towards the blonde with his foot. "Falling Anvil!" However, Will was able to fly and catch his foot using her strength.

"My turn." She spun her body in the air rapidly, at a point that not even Hak Foo could counter before she finally let go. "Red Fairy Tosses Bad Guy!" She had let him loose; and he had crashed hard onto the ground, leaving a trail as he skidded to a halt.

"That sounded really lame, didn't it?" Will asked with a sigh.

"Yeah, but that toss was cool." Cornelia complemented as they both looked to see Hak Foo standing up.

"Try as you may, but the Black Tiger cannot fall! I shall…!" He suddenly gave a howl in pain as a steel pipe came up between his legs and smacked him hard where the sun doesn't shine. He squeaked as he grabbed his lower regions before falling face-flat on the ground.

"Guess the Black Tiger's not gonna have any cubs now, huh?" Jade smirked as she held a steel pipe in her hands.

"Jade, when did you get here?" Cornelia asked.

"Like I was gonna just sit on the sidelines." Jade kept her smirk up with her titular scoff.

Will shook her head with a smile. "Oh, what am I gonna do with you?"

Not even a full minute later; all four Dark Hand goons laid in a beaten pile as they glanced upward to see the five Guardians, and Jade, all smirking at them.

"So, you losers wanna go for round 2?" Irma challenged as she, Cornelia, Hay Lin, and Taranee showed off bits of their own elemental powers while Will just cracked her knuckles and Jade had her arms crossed.

A sense of dread falling upon all four of them, they decided to make a strategic retreat. "RUN!" Finn shouted as Ratso took the Ox and Rabbit Talismans, picked up his buddies and zoomed off.

Once they were gone, all six girls cheered and shared high-fives with each other. "Now that was fun!" Irma exclaimed.

"Yep, we are so totally superheroes right now!" Hay Lin exclaimed. "Oh, now we're gonna need code names!"

"Isn't J-WITCH already a code name?" Taranee asked, still smiling herself.

"But that's a _team _name. We need individual names." Hay Lin corrected.

"Yeah well, I think I'm too good for any code names." Cornelia said with an air of confidence, whipping her long blonde hair in the back.

"Pretty sure any code name you can come up with would suck." Jade jabbed, causing the others to laugh, and Cornelia to pout. However, Will's smile soon faded as she heard an 'ahem'. Glancing to the side, she looked to see a certain man with crossed arms and an irritated look on her face. "Uh oh."

The others turned to see Jackie who looked a little less-than-pleased, along with Captain Black, who still seemed in shock.

"Uh… hi Uncle Jackie…" Jade waved nervously.

"Nice day we're having… huh…" Hay Lin laughed nervously as well while the others looked a bit nervous themselves.

Captain Black looked towards his friend. "Jackie… please explain." Jackie himself sighed as he rubbed his hand down his face.

* * *

"Okay, let me see if I understand you correctly." Valmont began. "You're telling me, that my four enforcers; three of which having the power of the Talismans, while the other is a feared martial artist, were overpowered by fairies?!" The crime lord exclaimed as he faced his quartet of henchman. After suffering quite a defeat from the Guardians, the Dark Hand goons ended up making their way back to their hideout where Valmont was waiting; which just so happened to be a warehouse along the docks.

"Hey, those chicks had some serious magic power behind them!" Finn exclaimed.

"Yeah, they were like Shendu and those other demon guys we let out." Ratso added. "All that fancy element magic."

"Plus, Chan was there to!" Chow stated.

That got Valmont's attention. "Chan?! Here?!"

"Indeed." Hak Foo confirmed. "His niece as well; and it would seem likely that Chan has allied himself with these 'fairies'. However, their demeanor seemed very human, almost child-like."

Rather than being upset at the mention of his worst enemy being present in the same city that he and his henchman traveled cross country specifically to get _away _from him, Valmont took the moment to think as he put a hand to his chin. "So, these fairies are children with their own magical powers?"

"They kind acted more like teenagers Big V." Finn said.

"Hmmm. Do you still have the Talismans?" Valmont asked.

"Right here boss." Ratso and his pals presented the twelve Talismans they still carried.

Maybe these so-called fairies could actually be useful. "Hak Foo, please take me to the site of this battle. I wish to see these beings for myself."

* * *

It was evening in Heatherfield as the Guardians, now in their human form, along with Jade were sitting down in a surveillance van with Jackie and Captain Black. Given how the head of Section 13 has seen the Guardians and their powers with his own eyes, Jackie had to explain who and what they were; including the Heart of Kandrakar, and their battle against Phobos in Meridian.

"Okay, so let me see if I understand this Jackie." Captain Black summed up. "You moved here to help these five girls train with magic powers to fight some evil prince from another dimension?"

"Essentially, yes." Jackie confirmed.

Captain Black smiled slightly as he shook his head. "You seem to always have a knack for attracting some unusual trouble my friend, the magical kind."

Jackie chuckled. "You have no idea."

"So… you actually believe all this?" Will questioned in surprise. One would think someone would be skeptical when it comes to magic.

"Kid, I've seen more than enough to make me a believer. Between dragons and demons, something like fairies doesn't really surprise me anymore." Captain Black responded.

"Yes, well I am still disappointed in all of you." Jackie addressed the girls. "Especially you Jade, you promised me that you wouldn't get them involved."

"Well I…"

"Hold on this wasn't Jade's fault." Hay Lin interrupted.

"Yeah, all she did was warn us about the Dark Hand." Irma said as well. "Just to kinda give us a heads up about any explosions or cars going flying into the air."

"If anything, _we're _the ones to blame for involving ourselves." Tarenne added. "We just wanted to help."

"Besides; compared to some of the freakshows Phobos has got, those Dark Hand chumps were kinda mild." Cornelia said.

Jade was a bit surprised but had a grateful smile at how her friends came to her defense. None of the kids at her old school would even think about doing something like this.

"So, if you wanna blame anyone, blame us." Will said.

Jackie was a bit mildly stunned, but very proud at how mature each of the girls were acting right now. It was more than likely Jade did have a hand in this, but each of these other girls were willing to stand up and take the blame as well, as they were responsible themselves.

"Well, did you at least get the Talismans?" Jackie asked; causing all six girls to stiffen up as they looked towards each other. Cornelia, Jade, and Will each face-palmed while Irma, Hay-Lin, and even Taranee gave nervous laughs.

"Well… we were kinda having too much fun to really notice…" Irma laughed nervously.

"Yeah eh… rookie mistake?" Hay Lin said in the same sort of tone.

Jackie and Captain Black both sighed. "You're still new to all of this, so I suppose that is to be expected."

"But this could also mean that Valmont might be willing to stay in town for the time being." Captain Black assumed. "He's one to hold a grudge, and since he's seen Jackie here, and if he still has the Talismans, he's probably going to try and make sure you don't interfere again."

Jackie looked with a serious expression. He knew Valmont very well and that was definitely something he would do.

"However,…" Captain Black continued. "I would also urge the five of you to be careful as well." He addressed the girls. "Should Valmont learn of your identities, it could potentially put your families in danger. I don't know who this Phobos-guy is or what kind of powers he's got, but just because Valmont doesn't have any magic, doesn't mean he's not dangerous."

Jackie spared a glance towards Jade as he told her the _exact _same thing, causing Jade to look away with crossed arms.

"Eh… we'll be sure to keep an eye out and be more careful this time around, Captain Black." Tarenee said.

"In the meantime; I'll keep the search up for the Dark Hand." Captain Black. "As well as talking with my superioris about the possibility of transferring Section 13 here to Heatherfield."

That took all of them, even Jackie, by surprise. "Your transferring your entire group here?" Will questioned.

"Considering what I've heard about this Phobos-character, this could probably spell out as another 'magical-end-of-the-world' type deal." Captain Black explained. "So I'll do what I can to help."

"Uh… are you sure about this?" Irma asked.

"Like I said, I've seen enough to make me a believer." Captain Black continued. "Plus, as a law enforcement agent for the United States, it's my sworn duty to protect this country, and potentially the world from all threats, even magic-based ones."

None of the Guardians knew what to say. "Wow. Uh… thanks. I… I really don't know what to say." Will said.

This seemed to get Hay Lin even more excited from before. "So, now we're not just superheroes, we're also secret agents?!"

"That is so cool!" Irma exclaimed as she pumped her arm.

"Oh, you know it!" Jade agreed as she and Irma shared a high-five.

"I just hope I don't get one of those Mission Impossible jumpsuits." Cornelia said. "Black's not my color."

"Hold the phone." Captain Black said. "I can't exactly employee all of you officially, considering you're all underage. But you'll still have my help."

"Is this really a good idea?" Taranee asked.

"It's alright." Jackie assured. "I've known Augustus for years; he's very dependable and has more than helped to fight magical threats before. You can count on him for help."

"Got that right." Jade added. "He's got all this super awesome James Bond stuff that I know is gonna kick major butt!"

"I can hardly wait." Irma smirked.

"Now then, I think it's best to get all of you home. It's getting late." Jackie told the girls. "I wouldn't want to worry your families."

"I'll give you all a lift, least I can do." Captain Black said.

"Thanks again for your help, Captain Black. Any friend of Jackie's is a friend of ours." Will said as the other girls, even Jade, smiled in agreement.

Captain Black gave a friendly smile. "They've taken quite a liking to you, Jackie." His friend smiling as well.

* * *

The sun had set as everyone had gone back home safely. However, not all was well. Right outside the building where Will's apartment was; both Valmont and Hak Foo snuck through the alleyway; having fallen the Section 13 transports when they dropped off the girls' home.

"So, one of these 'fairy-girls' lives here, it would seem." Valmont said.

"Yes master, the red-haired one specifically." Hak Foo confirmed.

"And they each possess some form of elemental based magic?" Valmont asked.

"Not all of them." Hak Foo answered. "The red-haired one didn't seem to possess any magic abilities, save for flight and supernatural strength. However, I did notice that she bore a crystal pendant of sorts that the others did not."

"A crystal pendant?" Valmont mused. If there was one thing he learned during his time both working with, and being possessed, by Shendu; it was that artifacts like talismans or pendants possessed some kind of unique power.

"Master, since we know where they all live, allow me to vanquish them." Hak Foo requested as he cracked his knuckles. "Their power could present a significant problem for us."

Valmont raised his hand. "No, I have a better idea. The Talismans please?"

Hak Foo did as he requested as he pulled out a sack containing all twelve Talismans. The crime lord reached in and grabbed only four: the Dragon, the Snake, the Monkey, and the Rooster. Using the Snake Talisman, Valmont turned his whole body invisible before using the Rooster Talisman to fly towards the building.

Quietly; Valmont searched each window until he found the one that revealed the bedroom of Will Vandom; the lights were out and the young girl was asleep, her whole body wrapped in her blanket, save for her red hair. Still being as quiet as possible, Valmont used the power of the Dragon Talisman to channel a little bit of heat into his hand as he placed it on where the lock would be on the inside. Just a tiny bit of heat was enough to melt the lock, allowing him to open the window slightly. He then used the Monkey Talisman to shapeshift into a bird before flying into Will's room through the small opening.

Once inside, he transformed back but remained invisible with the Snake Talisman. He remained as still as possible as he heard Will groan slightly while rolling a bit on her bed before going into a deeper sleep. Valmont spotted the crystal pendant that Hak Foo mentioned on her desk as he slowly walked toward it and picked it up by the string.

Using the Monkey Talisman again, Valmont transformed into a bird and flew out the window, holding the crystal by the string with his feet. He flew away from the building before meeting up with Hak Foo again and transformed back to his normal visible self.

"You say these girls a problem, Hak Foo." Valmont said as he held the Heart of Kandrakar in his hands. "Well, there is an old saying us businessmen have: 'a problem is simply a misunderstood opportunity.'" The crime lord smiled evilly as he glanced at the glowing amulet now in his possession.

**Done. **

**Well, this chapter turned out to be a bit shorter than I thought. So, there is some good news and bad news.**

**Good news: The Guardians had just had their first encounter with the Dark Hand and seemed to be more than a match for them. And they are now getting some help from Captain Black and Section 13 in their fight against Phobos. **

**Bad news: Valmont has stolen the Heart of Kandrakar. But what does he plan on doing with it? Find out in the next chapter to J-WITCH, which I plan to have out soon. See ya next time. **


	5. J-WITCH Meets The J-Team!

**Hi everyone, thanks again for waiting. So now we continue where we left off with J-WITCH as the Guardians had their first rumble with the Dark Hand, and Valmont has stolen the Heart of Kandrakar, but for what purpose? Well, let's find out right now as we are introduced to some more JCA characters, both friend and foe alike. **

**J-WITCH Meets The J-Team!**

Valmont and his goons sat in a warehouse along the docks as the crime lord held the crystal pendant known as the Heart of Kandrakar in his hands as his four Enforcers looked at the glowing crystal with amazement.

"Oooh, pretty." Ratso looked at it with a smile.

"So, this thing's the source of those Fairies' powers?" Chow asked.

"From Hak Foo's observations, yes." Valmont confirmed.

"So, what do you wanna do with it, Big V?" Finn asked.

"Those so-called fairies had the demeanor of children." Hak Foo said. "However, if we were to harness their power for ourselves…. Just imagine the devastation we could unleash!"

"Does that mean we have to wear those skirts?" Ratso asked.

"Don't worry, we won't be using this crystal's power." Valmont revealed, much to the surprise of his Enforcers.

"That's a bit of a surprise." Finn said.

"Yeah, you're usually on-board with getting magic powers." Chow noticed.

"Yes, that is until we meet that pestilent lizard, Shendu, and he drove our syndicate into the ground searching for his Talismans and the portals for his demon brethren!" Valmont exclaimed. "This clearly has powers, but I much rather avoid getting into another ridiculous magical squallier; the Talismans we have may be magic, but that is as far as we go!"

Each of the Enforcers knew Valmont made a good point. Arguably, meeting Shendu was what set the chain of events in motion that led to the ruin of the Dark Hand, best to avoid that sort of scenario if they want to rebuild their organization.

"So, what will we do with this crystal?" Hak Foo asked.

"We'll sell it along with the other artifacts we've proceeded." Valmont said. "And since these fairy-girls are affiliate with Chan, he'll be too busy trying to locate it once it's sold, giving us more time to resurrect the Dark Hand. So, is everything prepared?"

"All set Big-V." Finn said. "I sent the word out when we got back, and we already got some pretty big buyers coming in tonight. By the time we're done, we'll be rolling in dough!"

"Dough? Are we making cookies?" Ratso asked, causing everyone else to groan in annoyance as Valmont looked toward the Heart of Kandrakar with an evil smile.

* * *

_Silver Dragon_

"What do you mean you lost the Heart of Kandrakar?!" Caleb shouted as he, Jackie, Cornelia, Jade, Irma, Uncle, Taranee, Hay Lin, Tohru, and Yan Lin all looked towards the shocked Will as it looked as if she was about to have a panic attack.

"I completely turned my room upside down!" Will exclaimed. "I flipped over my bed, my desk, I tore apart my closet, but it just wasn't there! I know I put it away on my desk before I went to bed but now… OW!"

"How could you have lost Heart of Kandrakar?!" Uncle exclaimed after dope-slapping Will. "Crystal is source of your powers, and you are keeper of Heart! You are bad Guardian!"

"That is quite enough." Yan Lin put her hand on the old Chi-Wizard's shoulder. "Panicking and blaming one another will not find the crystal."

"Miss Lin is right." Jackie nodded. He turned towards Will as she hung her head.

"I'm sorry… I just…"

"Will, no one is blaming you." Jackie began.

"I am." Caleb raised his hand only to get elbowed by Cornelia and Jade in the side. "Ow!"

"I need you to calm down." Jackie continued to speak to Will. "Take a deep breath." He took his own deep breath for emphasis. Will did the same and this managed to calm her down a bit. "Alright, now did you notice anything odd when you woke up?"

"Maybe someone broke into your room last night?" Taranee asked.

"My window wasn't broken." Will said.

"Was anything else missing?" Yan Lin asked.

"No… just the Heart." Will replied.

"So whoever is responsible was looking for the Heart specifically." Tohru assumed.

"Maybe one of Phobos guys? Like that evil wizard?" Hay Lin guessed.

"Impossible." Uncle pointed out. "Uncle would have had the willies if Daolon Wong appeared."

"Yeah, because everyone trusts the old guy's goose bumps." Irma muttered sarcastically.

"Even if it was one of Phobos' henchman, I doubt they would have just settled with taking the Heart." Caleb pointed. "Will would have also likely have been captured or killed in her sleep if that was the case."

Will didn't like the idea of being kidnapped again or killed in her sleep, but Jackie put a hand on her shoulder to calm her down.

Jade snapped her fingers in realization. "What if it was Valmont!?" That got everyone's attention. "Think about it, he probably saw our fight, and he wanted the Heart's power for himself. So, he used the Talismans to sneak in, grab it, and run off with it!"

"That… actually makes sense." Cornelia said.

"Who is this 'Valmont' person?" Caleb asked.

"Oh, just your typical crime lord bad guy." Hay Lin gave the short of it.

"Valmont is a very dangerous man." Jackie explained. "A dangerous criminal whom I've dealt with several times."

"You know… now that I think about it…" Will remembered something. "My window wasn't broken. But it was opened, and I know I closed it last night, and the lock was melted."

"So, he used the Dragon Talisman to melt the lock; and the Snake Talisman with the Monkey Talisman to shapeshift into something small and turn invisible to grab the Heart and leave without making a ruckus." Jade said.

"How'd you figure that out?" Taranee asked.

"Lucy guess." Jade shrugged.

"So, if this Valmont has stolen the Heart, let's find him and get it back." Caleb stated.

"Unfortunately, Caleb, it's not that simple." Tohru said. "Valmont is a very resourceful man and he is exceptional when it comes to hiding. He could be anywhere in the city."

"And Heatherfield is a pretty big town, so it's gonna be like looking for a needle in a haystack." Cornelia said.

"Perhaps I can help."

They all looked toward the main entrance of the restaurant to see Captain Black walk in with a bag over his shoulder. Caleb immediately took a combat stance.

"Who are you!?" He demanded, but Jackie and Jade quickly blocked his path.

"Whoa, hold on Rebel-Boy, he's a friend!" Jade told him.

"Caleb, this is Captain Black." Jackie began. "He's a personal friend of mine, and the head of Section 13, a law enforcement agency in our world." He turned to his friend. "Captain Black, this young man is Caleb, he is the leader of the rebellion in Meridian."

"A pleasure." Captain Black offered his hand for Caleb to shake, which he did.

"Same, and sorry about earlier."

"No harm done."

"Captain Black, sir, you said you could help us find the Heart?" Will asked.

"I think I may have a way." Captain Black responded before turning to the elderly woman, Yan Lin. "Is there any place private we could speak? These are rather classified files that I have."

"Yes, right this way." Yan Lin lead everyone into the basement so they could speak privately.

* * *

Everyone sat down at a table as Captain Black took out a file folder and handed Jackie a set of photographs showing multiple jade statues.

"Oh, I recognize these pieces, some of the finest pieces of Emperor's Jade ever to exist." Jackie said.

"Until they vanished." Captain Black said as Jackie put the photos down and several of the girls, even Uncle, looked at all the pictures.

"Wow, look at this stuff." Taranee said. "I've never seen jade this fine."

"Hmm, most impressive indeed." Uncle seemed to agree.

"Wow, didn't know I was so impressive." Jade smirked.

"I think they're talking about the stone, not you Jade." Irma pointed out.

Captain Black meanwhile continued to explain. "As you know Jackie, the collection of nearly a dozen Chinese Museums have been hit over the last decade; and the thefts have the same thing in common."

"No prints, no tracks, no suspects." Jackie stated.

"Until now." Captain Black placed a photo of an elderly Taiwanese man with a prosthetic hand made from jade. "Section 13 agents have been tracking the movements of Taiwanese billionaire Bartholomew Chang."

"I think I've heard of that guy." Cornelia said. "My dad read some newspapers about him. Isn't he some kind of big philanthropist?"

"What is a philanthropist?" Caleb asked.

"Basically, a rich guy who donates to charity and does other good things." Irma gave a crude summary.

"However, Chang is one of our primary suspects for all these thefts." Captain Black said.

"I would think so to." Tohru said. "I used to work for Valmont, and I have heard him making deals with Chang before, but I've never met the man face-to-face."

"So, he's like a billionaire who pretends to be a good guy but is really a bad guy? Sounds like a real kingpin of crime." Cornelia said.

"Hey uh, what happened to his hand?" Will asked looking at a photo of Chang that showed his jade prosthetic.

"Iron fist competition." Captain Black answered.

"What's that?" Hay Lin asked.

"You know those karate moves that let you slice through bricks with your hands?" Jade answered motioning her hand to chop through the table. It didn't take long for the five girls to put two-and-two together causing them all to wince.

"Ouch." Irma winced.

"However, we cannot make any moves to arrest Chang without absolute proof that he is behind all of this… OW!" Captain Black felt his forehead where Uncle dope slapped him.

"We are looking for _Valmont_ not jade-thief!" Uncle exclaimed to Captain Black. "How is this supposed to lead us to Heart of Kandrakar?!"

"I'm quite certain that Captain Black was getting to that, Jin." Yan Lin calmed the elderly man down. "Please continue, Captain."

"Thank you." Captain Black nodded. "As you all know; Valmont and his Enforcers were previously based in San Francisco, but after stealing the Talismans, they went cross country, hitting multiple banks and museums along the way. Many of the artifacts stolen are made from Emperor's Jade as well."

It didn't take long to figure out where Captain Black was going.

"So, Valmont is going to try and sell this stuff to Chang?" Jade figured it out.

"That is indeed our assumption." Captain Black nodded. "We have also confirmed that Chang has landed in New York early this morning around 3am. However, we have since lost track of him. Odds are, he is here in Heatherfield trying to find and meet with Valmont. Wherever he is, I believe that this Heart of Kandrakar will be as well."

"Alright, so where do we find him?" Caleb asked.

"That is the problem." Captain Black said. "While we still believe that the Dark Hand is hiding somewhere in Heatherfield, we do not know where exactly. In addition, there are several more complications."

"What sort of complications?" Jackie asked.

"I do not like where this is going." Will gulped.

"Valmont may be hosting an auction soon, where he intends to sell the artifacts that he has stolen." Captain Black explained. "And it's not just Chang who will be attending." He pulled out three photos from his file. "Recently; three dangerous criminals have escaped from prison and we have managed to track them here, but we do not know where exactly they are. Jackie, I trust you've already met them."

He handed his friend the photos as Jackie's eyes widened and ha gave an audible gasp as he did recognize them all. One was an elderly bald man with a white beard and a red outfit; another was a tan-skinned woman with long blonde hair and a red trench coat; and the last one was a middle-aged Japanese man with black hair and a purple robe.

Jade looked over Jackie's shoulder and looked in surprise at the people in those photos. "Whoa."

The five Guardians all looked a bit confused. "Uh you gonna tell us what you're so surprised over or what?" Cornelia questioned.

Jackie put the photos on the table for the girls and everyone else to see "These people are very dangerous, and I would not recommend anybody facing them."

"Who are these people?" Caleb asked as they all looked at the photos.

"Dr. Ashby Necrosis." Captain Black began to list them all. "A mad scientist, also known as the Kingpin of Techno-crime. He has a proclivity for creating 'doomsday devices'. Vanessa Barone, an international mercenary and relic hunter who is more than skilled at hand-to-hand combat. And finally, Kuniko Kasahara, alias 'Origami', arguably the most dangerous of them all. He possess the ability to transform into living paper and shape is body into whatever form or weapon he chooses."

"Yeah but Jackie fought and put them all away before, this shouldn't be too hard." Jade said.

"Wait hold on; I get the mad scientist and treasure hunter, but a paper man?" Will asked. "That doesn't sound all that dangerous to me."

"Have you ever had a paper cut, Will?" Jackie asked, to which she nodded. "Well this man can make his paper-body sharp enough to cut through solid steel. So, you would be lucky if he did not cut off your limbs."

Will gulped, instantly regretting underestimating this Origami guy.

"So; basically, we got a crime lord with henchman armed to the teeth with magic Talismans, a billionaire bad guy obsessed with jade, a mad scientist, a treasure hunter, and a real-life super villain with magic powers?" Cornelia listed.

"Man, talk about a real Legion of Doom." Irma said.

"This will certainly be difficult." Tohru nodded.

"And without the Heart of Kandrakar we can't transform and use our powers. We're at a total disadvantage here!" Taranee exclaimed

"I know." Captain Black said as he walked up the stairs that led out of the basement. "Which is why I called in reinforcements who have dealt with this sort of thing before, whom I know that you are also familiar with Jackie."

Jackie looked in surprise as large grin formed on Jade's face as she knew who exactly Captain Black was talking about.

"Oh yes!" Jade smirked just as Captain Black opened the door to reveal three people who just joined the party. One was an attractive young woman with tan skin and long black hair wearing a dark grey cat-suit; another was a large man wearing a black and yellow wrestling outfit and a red mask with the insignia of a bull at the forehead, and right by his side was a boy around Jade's age with a green shirt, brown pants, and sandals.

Jade smiled to her friends "Guardians of the Veil, meet the J-Team! El Toro Fuerte, luchador wrestler extraordinaire! Viper, former super-thief and mistress of akido, karate, and krav maga; and El Toro's sidekick, Paco." She introduced the last one with less enthusiasm than the others.

"I am El Toro's protégé, Jade!" The young Mexican boy exclaimed.

"Wait… J-Team?" Taranee voiced in confusion.

"Uncle Jackie, you got your own team?!" Hay Lin beamed excitedly.

"Is that big guy a Mexican Wrestler?" Irma asked.

"Is she supposed to be Catwoman or something?" Cornelia questioned.

"Everyone, please calm down." Jackie began to explain to the girls. "These are personal friends of mine; as Jade has already introduced, El Toro Fuerte is a professional Mexican wrestler and Viper is a former thief turned security consoler."

"Hello senoras." El Toro bowed his head respectively. "A pleasure to meet you all."

"Likewise." Yan Lin bowed her head. "I've heard much about you as well from Jin's letters."

"So, these are the WITCH girls that Jade's told me about, huh?" Viper looked around with her usual grin on her face.

"Wait, Jade told you about us?" Will asked in surprise.

"We're pen pals." Viper patted the younger girl's head. "I'm also glad she's making more friends."

"So, these are some of your world's best warriors?" Caleb asked Tohru.

"They are more than capable of handling themselves and even have experience battling the Forces of Darkness alongside us." Tohru responded.

"Senor Black has informed us of the situation already." El Toro revealed. "We are to track the Dark Hand and retrieve this 'Heart of Kandrakar' as you call it before it sold to the hands of criminals."

"And kick plenty of bad guy butt doing it!" Jade exclaimed excitedly.

"Of course, it'll be El Toro who will be kicking the most butt, Jade." Paco told her.

"I think you mean Jackie." Jade argued.

"El Toro!"

"Jackie!"

"El Toro!"

"Jackie!"

"Um excuse me!" Taranee got everyone's attention. "This is great and all, but does anyone here have any idea how to _find_ the bad guys?"

This caused everyone to look towards each other in confusion as very few had an idea where to start. "I already have Section 13 looking through satellite surveillance…. OW!" Captain Black felt his forehead where Uncle slapped him.

"Can your 'satellite surveillance' track magic? No!" Uncle exclaimed. "Uncle will devise locator spell!"

"Actually, I think I already have an idea." Jade walked to the corner of the room where a large trashcan was located before she kicked the can down and spilled its contents, including a certain Passling.

"Ah! Why wake Blunk up!? Blunk not steal anything!" The Passling known as Blunk wined.

"I didn't know toads grew so big in America." Paco pointed out as most of the group simply looked annoyed or unsurprised while Captain Black, Viper, and El Toro were just confused.

"Eh… what exactly is that supposed to be?" Viper pointed in minor disgust. "And why does it smell worse than fish guts?"

"This is Blunk." Jackie explained. "He is a creature from the realm of Meridian called a 'Passling'."

"And he can sniff out magic." Jade added.

"Which could lead us to the Heart of Kandrakar!" Will's eyes widened in realization with a smile. "Jade, you're a genius!"

"I know." Jade smirked with crossed arms.

"We must hurry!" Uncle exclaimed, getting everyone's attention. "While the Heart may be in Valmont's possession _right now_, it may only be a matter of time till the Forces of Darkness learn what has transpired as well."

However, while everyone in the large group began to discuss their plan; they all failed to notice that there was indeed someone listening on their conversation. Just outside the window of the basement, out near the sidewalk and close to the alleyway outside the building was another Passling that looked similar to Blunk, but quite different. He appeared to be somewhat bigger than Blunk, with a red shirt and black pants, grey skin, and long white hair off the side of his bald head.

This Passling snickered evilly once he heard this news. He had followed Blunk through a portal into Earth early this morning, hoping to find something worth selling, but never could he have imagined that the new Guardians would lose the Heart of Kandrakar. Oh, he was going to be handsomely rewarded for this. He went into the alleyway and turned one corner where a portal was still open, he jumped through and made his way back to Meridian.

* * *

_Phobos' Castle – Throne Room_

"The Guardians have lost the Heart of Kandrakar?!" Prince Phobos exclaimed in surprise as he stood up from his throne. Both Cedric, in his human form, and Daolon Wong were at the sides of his throne and looked with interest as well.

"Yes. Jeek heard everything." The Passling identified as Jeek answered as he bowed to Phobos. "Guardians get help from Earth warriors to find Heart. Heart in hands of man named Valmont."

Wong snickered. "Too loose the source of their own power so carelessly. These girls really are novices."

"And this Valmont character seeks to sell the Heart?" Cedric asked Jeek.

"Yes, yes, to other Earth criminals. But Guardians and Earth warriors want find it first!" Jeek stated.

"My prince, I can easily locate the Heart's power and bring it to you." Wong told Phobos.

"Perhaps it is best you simply tell me its location Wong, and I'll retrieve it _personally_." Cedric addressed the Dark Chi Wizard who glared at him.

"Only for you to fail? This requires precision, but blunt force." Wong replied as the two glared at one another.

"Enough!" Phobos exclaimed, ending their argument. "Cedric, Wong, you will both go to Earth. Purchase the Heart if you can, but if not, take it by force and bring it to me."

"Both of us, my liege?" Cedric asked, not liking the idea of working with Daolon Wong who didn't seem to keen on the idea himself.

"You are both my greatest assets, and even though the Guardians may be powerless right now, they will undoubtedly have the aid of Jackie Chan and his associates." Wong said. "I underestimated that warrior before, it will not happen again. You _will _work together!"

The two glanced at each other angrily before bowing. "As you wish." They both said simultaneously.

Phobos smirked. "Excellent work Jeek." He told the Passling as he took out a sack filled with jewels and gold. "Take your reward." He threw the sack at Jeek who caught it and snickered evilly.

* * *

_Earth – Evening_

Thanks to Blunk's ability to 'sniff' out magic, the combined group of heroes had managed to track the Heart of Kandrakar's location to a large warehouse located at the docs. Already, both Jackie and Viper we're on the move as they were both dressed in black and followed Blunk onto a rooftop of one warehouse. They ran quietly and jumped onto the next one over before climbing up a series of poles onto the largest building in the area before Blunk led them to a skylight.

"See! Blunk can smell! Blunk find Heart!" He pointed into the skylight where they could see Valmont standing on a makeshift stage alongside his four Enforcers.

"Huh, for some magic-alien-toad, he could give bloodhounds a run for their money." Viper commented.

"Good work Blunk." Jackie told the Passling as he reached into a small sack.

"Blunk lead Jackie to Heart, Jade promise Blunk something called doughnut."

"Right here handsome." Viper gave Blunk a pink doughnut which the he ate instantly just as Jackie pulled out a small hand-held camera.

"Mmmm, doughnut." Blunk moaned with a smile as he drooled like an animal.

"Captain Black, are you seeing this?" Jackie asked through a communications device as his camera turned on.

* * *

From within a large surveillance van just outside the docks; Captain Black had managed to get the video feed from the camera onto a screen.

"I got it Jackie." He said as Will, Jade, Taranee, Uncle, El Toro, Hay Lin, Paco, Cornelia, Tohru, and Caleb were all in the van that was thankfully large enough to contain all of them, though it was still a bit of a tight squeeze.

"Now I know what sardines feel like." Will said, feeling a bit cramped.

"Yeah, that's what we get for sharking space with a sumo and Mexican wrestler." Irma said.

"Sorry." El Toro apologized while Tohru offered an apologetic smile.

"Move over, I wanna see which bad guys showed up!" Jade tried to get in close to Captain Black along with Caleb and Paco to see the video screen of who was attending this auction.

All the people present were those whom Captain Black had previously identified along with some extra personnel. Bartholomew Chang sat on a chair accompanied by three body guards; two large men, one with orange hair and one with blonde hair, and a brown-skinned woman with dark brown hair and fat buns on the sides of her head; all three wore white karate outfits. Dr. Ashby Necrosis also sat on a chair with his loyal henchman Hoyle; a man with a long purple jacket and magenta scarf. Vanessa Barone sat by herself, guess she was so confident in her own skills that she didn't feel she needed a bodyguard. Origami was present as well, though he sat by himself, no need to explain why he didn't have any bodyguards. However, there were two additional people who sat near the back that caught everyone's attention.

"Wait, who's that?" Caleb pointed to the two mysterious personnel.

"Jackie, zoomed in on the far-left corner." Captain Black contacted through the communications device in his ear. The video feed zoomed in on the pair; though one appeared to be a tall man, he was unrecognizable due to the green hooded robe he wore, but Jade recognized the shorter, more elderly man that was next to him.

"Uh oh, Dark Wizard alert!" Jade exclaimed.

Uncle saw the feed and gasped. "Daolon Wong!"

Everyone else saw the video as well. "But who's that other guy with him?" Hay Lin asked. "Can't see his face."

"Maybe someone else working for Phobos?" Taranee assumed.

"My gut's telling me it's Cedric." Caleb glared.

"Who is Cedric?" El Toro asked.

"A giant snake man working for the bad guys." Cornelia answered.

"He doesn't look all that giant to me." Paco pointed out.

"Cedric is a shapeshifter." Tohru explained. "He can change in-between his monstrous form to that of a normal human. Though we have never seen his human-appearance before."

"Forces of Darkness know criminals have Heart of Kandrakar." Uncle stated.

"Well duh." Cornelia rolled her eyes.

"Everyone keep it down!" Captain Black told the group. "It's starting."

"_Good evening everyone…" _Valmont's began to speak

* * *

_Warehouse_

"… Thank you all for coming." Valmont spoke to the villains gathered, including the listening Jackie, Viper, and Blunk from the roof whom he didn't notice as his Enforcers brought out several large crates and boxes. "It feels so good to see so many familiar faces." He spoke, glancing towards Chang who nodded in his direction. "Even some new ones. Now, without further delay, let us begin."

From that point forward; Valmont began to show off many of the artifacts he 'procured' from the museums his Enforcers hit while making their way here from San Francisco. He presented pretty much everything from statues, to vases, to ancient jewelry, even several paintings. He sold nearly every artifact he presented at reasonable prices ranging from five hundred thousand at the lowest to one million at the highest so far. Origami had purchased most of the paintings, most notably those from the Far East; Necrosis appeared very selective about his acquisitions, mostly looking for something that he could either sell himself or incorporate into whatever doomsday device his deranged mind could conceive. Vanessa's purchases were mostly jewelry and gems, while Chang was also very selective, purchasing only what few Emperor's jade artifacts Valmont had with him. Wong and Cedric purchased nothing as they were here for one thing only.

"…Sold! To the lovely Vanessa Barone." Valmont had sold one golden necklace with an opal at the center as Finn handed her the necklace.

"Here's number to, if you're interested." Finn winked as he handed a piece of paper with his phone number the attractive woman before walking away. Vanessa merely rolled her eyes before throwing the paper away.

"And now, for the final piece of the night." Valmont began as Hak Foo presented a briefcase. "A very unique artifact, unlike anything seen in the world."

Everyone was listening to him; including Phobos and Cedric in the back, along with Jackie, Viper, and Blunk on the roof, and everyone else listening from the surveillance van outside as they all paid close attention as Valmont opened the brief case and pulled out the glowing crystal pendant known as the Heart of Kandrakar.

"This mysterious little gem may seem small, but I assure you, it has more value than all the treasures I have sold to you all tonight combined!" Valmont eagerly presented it to all the criminals and villains as listened with interest. "Its origin is unknown, but it is said to contain powerful and potent magic inside. While that may sound rather fantastic, I'm quite certain that nearly everyone present has seen plenty to make them all belief in the impossible. So, I will open the bidding at five hundred thousand dollars…!"

"Seven hundred thousand!" Vanessa immediately got on board, that treasure could help her to locate even more artifacts than ever thought possible.

"Nine hundred thousand!" Origami raised his hand, already thinking on using the power inside the pendant to increase his own.

"One million, two hundred thousand!" Dr. Necrosis stood up. Something like that could potentially power a hundred doomsday devices.

"One million, five hundred!" Origami challenged.

"Two million!" Vanessa exclaimed.

"Three million!" Dr. Necrosis bid even higher.

"We have in our possession, twenty pounds of gold and gems rarer than you would find anywhere in the world." Cedric finally spoke up as Wong held a large bag in his hand.

"Hold the bid!" Valmont paused the auction for a moment. "How much did you say?"

Hak Foo quickly did a jump from the stage all the way to the back of the room to take the bag from Wong before flipping back on stage. He opened the sack as Valmont and his Enforcers looked in shock at the shinny artifacts present.

"Whoa!" Finn exclaimed.

"It's so shinny…" Ratso smiled.

"That's a lot of treasure right there." Chow pointed out.

Valmont straightened himself out. "Yes well, twenty pounds of gold however is only worth just under five hundred thousand and we already have a bid that is six times the amount…"

"What if we offered a powerful magical artifact as well." Wong offered as he pulled out what appeared to be a crystal skull and levitated it towards Valmont who took it in his hands. "That skull will grant you powers unlike any human has ever had before. You would be unstoppable."

Valmont raised a skeptic eyebrow. "Is there a catch? Would I have to sell my soul or strike a deal with a demon to obtain this power?"

"Oh no, just a drop of your blood will do, and you will find yourself truly invincible." Cedric assured with an evil smile.

Valmont liked the idea. As long as he didn't have to deal with a sentient evil creature like before, he could handle another magical item of power in addition to the Talismans. "Very well. We have the bidding at twenty pounds of gold and diamonds, and this rare artifact. Going once, going twice…"

"Five billion dollars!"

Everyone, both hero and villain, in present and affair, found their eyes traced towards the man who just made the largest bid made tonight. Chang, who sat cross-legged and comfortably in his chair with a raised prosthetic-jade hand and a casual smile.

"Five billion bucks?!" Finn, Ratso, and Chow all exclaimed at the same time.

"Now that's a ton of dough!" Finn stated.

"What about that magic skull thing?" Ratso asked.

"We already possess the Talismans; such a thing is trivial." Hak Foo said.

"So, what's the plan boss?" Chow asked Valmont who stood up straight, considering the bid before making a decision.

"We have the bidding at five billion. Going once… going twice… sold! To the generous Mr. Chang. And with that, this auction has come to a close, I thank you all for coming." Valmont said as he slipped the crystal skull into his coat for safe keeping, he'd be taking it anyway.

While Chang smiled almost evilly, Cedric and Wong glared in his direction.

* * *

On the rooftop; Jackie, Viper, and Blunk had heard and seen everything they needed to. "Well, good to know that thing is worth so much." Viper tried to put in a little humor.

"We must retrieve the Heart as soon as possible before Wong or Cedric…" Jackie was about to say something, but Blunk pulled on his shirt.

"Wait! Pretty man has crystal skull! Crystal skull bad!" Blunk pointed to Valmont as he walked off the stage just as everyone was standing up and preparing to leave.

"You know what that thing is?" Viper asked Blunk in mild surprise.

"Yes." Blunk nodded. "Blunk seen bad wizard use skull on soldiers. Crystal skull make big armor, hurt rebels very bad."

Jackie looked in surprise before accessing his communications device. "Uncle, did hear that? The artifact Valmont has…"

"_Aiya!" _Uncle exclaimed over the earpiece, causing Jackie to wince. _"Crystal skull not important! Heart of Kandrakar is! Chang may possess Heart now, but Cedric and Daolon Wong will try to take it by force. You must retrieve Heart before Forces of Darkness do! Go now!"_

* * *

Chang was led to a limousine outside by his three bodyguards as he opened the brief case he held, the pink light from the Heart of Kandrakar shinning on his face and illuminating his evil smile. "This will do me great wonders."

However, before he could enter his limousine, the door was quickly closed by the sudden appearance by the hooded Cedric as he glared at the crime lord, while his three bodyguards stood at the ready.

"Can I help you?" Chang questioned.

"You have something that we desire, so we will be taking it." Cedric said.

"I purchased this fairly sir." Chang rebutted. "If you feel that is not just, perhaps you should have offered more than simple gold."

"Oh, but you misunderstand." Daolon Wong suddenly appeared behind him. "We are not asking." Right as he said that, Cedric's eyes became reptilian slits and he transformed dramatically into his hulking humanoid snake form; startling Chang as his guards surrounded him protectively.

"**Gan! Ren! Chui!" **Wong had summoned his Dark Chi Warriors who immediately leapt to dispatch Chang's guards. Gan punched the blonde man, Ren kicked the woman, and Chui lifted up the other man and threw him into the water off the docks with the rest of his guards just as Cedric had picked up the surprised Chang by the back of his shirt and pried the case containing the Heart of Kandrakar from his hands.

"At last!" Cedric hissed gleefully. "The Heart of Kandrakar is…" Suddenly the case was telekinetically pulled from Cedric's massive hand and straight towards Finn, courtesy of the Rooster Talisman as he stood with Valmont, Ratso, Chow, and Hak Foo.

"What's all this then?" Valmont questioned as Cedric casually tossed Chang over his shoulder and into the water.

"Uh… is that a giant snake or what?" Ratso pointed out.

"At this point, nothing surprises me anymore." Chow sighed.

"Mortal, you will give us the Heart of Kandrakar now!" Cedric warned.

"'Heart of Kandrakar', so that's what it's called." Valmont mused with an intrigued grin.

"You have no idea the power that holds." Wong stated. "Return it to us or suffer dire consequences." He warned as his Dark Chi Warriors drew their respective weapons and Cedric hissed.

"Oh, I have a dire consequence for you as well." Valmont sneered. "Boys?"

Finn shot a pair of heat-beam eyes while Chow blasted a stream of fire from his palm, curtesy of the Pig and Dragon Talismans respectively; each one hit Cedric hard and sent him crashing over the dock and into the river. Ratso suddenly zoomed over and delivered a quick sweeping punch to knock all three Dark Chi Warriors back; but Wong was able to shield himself with a wall of dark magic. The Dark Chi wizard looked in surprise.

"You possess the Talismans of Shendu!"

"Ah so you know of the Talismans, do you?" Valmont still had his smile as he held the briefcase in his hands. "Then I trust you know what will happen to you if you should try to steal from us." Suddenly however, a whip appeared and ensnared the handle of the box, snatching it from Valmont's hands much to his and his Enforcers' shock.

The whip belonged to Vanessa Barone as she grabbed the case for herself as she stood on a pile of crates. "Sorry love, but as they say, no honor among thieves…. AH!" She felt her shoulder as an elongated streak of paper sliced the side of her arm, forcing her to drop it where it fell into another elongated streak that recoiled and drew back to Origami.

"I believe that this artifact would be better suited in a vault as opposed to the grubby hands of an insolent treasure hunter." Origami sneered as Vanessa glared at him. However, Origami quickly folded his body into a thin sheet of paper to avoid some incoming razor-sharp cards thrown at him as the briefcase he was holding was pulled away by a magnetic force.

The case was then retrieved by Dr. Necrosis as he held a magnetic-device in his hand while his henchman Hoyle held his card-weapons in his hand. "Looks like you fellas lost this hand." Hoyle smirked

"You fools don't realize that this artifact contains great power. And what good is power if you don't use it?" Necrosis stated.

"Whoa, everyone's wanting that Heart-thing." Ratso voiced in surprise.

"Must really be something else." Chow stated.

Valmont growled and glared at each of the individuals who just tried to steal it from him; but everyone's attention was caught by Cedric who burst out from under the docks with a roar as Wong re-summoned his Dark Chi Warriors.

It was an intense stare-down as Valmont and his four Enforcers glared at everyone present; Wong held his glowing staff at the ready as his Dark Chi Warriors wielded their respective weapons while Cedric hissed. Vanessa cracked her whip, Origami's arms converted into paper-blades, Hoyle held his razor-sharp cards as Necrosis put on a gauntlet-like device. Even Chang pulled himself out of the river and onto the docks to glare at the villains all present.

After a minute of intense staring; it was on. "Attack!" Valmont and Wong ordered at the same time. Every villain present yelled as they all charged and clashed at each other. Hak Foo roared as he leapt into the air to deliver a flying kick to Cedric's face; Vanessa cracked her whip at Gan who parried it with his staff; Chui swung his hammer at Ratso who used the Rabbit Talisman's speed to zoom around it; Finn and Ratso fired eye-beams and combustion blasts respectively at Wong who shielded himself with dark magic, leaving them open for Ren to toss his shuriken weapon at the two Enforcers, forcing them to duck. Hoyle threw his razor cards at Origami who used his paper-arm blades to slice through and parry them while Necrosis used his gauntlet to fire a laser beam at Cedric who held Hak Foo by his foot to blast him back.

As chaos ensued all around the docks and outside of the warehouse; Jackie, Viper, and Blunk had slid down the side of the building and were a safe distance away.

"Well, so much for the stealth option." Viper commented.

"We should have Captain Black call Section 13 and gather reinforcements as soon as possible." Jackie said.

"Yeah, probably a good idea." Viper agreed.

"Uh… why Jade running to battle?" Blunk asked.

"What?!" Jackie questioned as he saw Blunk pointing towards Jade sneaking around a corner, close to Necrosis, who hadn't noticed her presence yet

Jade was so close to the case that Necrosis continued to hold but couldn't think of a way to get it without him noticing or drawing the attention of the other villains. That is until, she spotted a stray card from Hoyle lying on the ground. She smirked as she picked it up.

"Looks like I got a trump card." Jade whispered to herself as she tossed the card at Necrosis' leg, forcing him to fall to his knee and grab his scratch, while consequently dropping the brief case he held, which Jade was quick to snatch without anyone noticing before running back into the alleyway.

Jade had made it a safe distance away when both Jackie and Will came in from separate directions. "Jade, why'd you just vanish like that?!" The red-haired girl questioned, causing Jackie to look in surprise at Will's presence.

"Will!? What are you doing here?!"

"Jade just disappeared from the van so I went to find her and…" Will tried to explain.

"Talk later, right now, it's time to Guardian up." Jade opened the briefcase to reveal the Heart of Kandrakar, much to their surprise.

"You got the Heart!?" Will exclaimed.

Jade scoffed. "Like I was just gonna sit back and do nothing." She glanced behind her uncle and friend. "And it looks like the whole gang showed up."

Jackie and Will turned around to see their friends and allies; Tohru, Irma, Cornelia, Hay Lin, Taranee, Uncle, Viper, Captain Black, El Toro, and Caleb all gathered together, even Paco and Blunk we're all present.

Jade smirked. "Avengers Assemble. Will, will you do the honors?"

Will looked a bit unsure as she took the Heart in her hands, still reeling over how she lost it earlier, but Jackie put a hand on her shoulder as he smiled and nodded. This simple gesture was enough to renew her confidence as she smiled and said two simple words.

"**Guardians Unite!"**

With a bright flash of pink light; all the fighting among the villains came to a halt as they all looked in shock at the glowing light coming from the alleyway. When it subsided; all five Guardians of the Veil had transformed and hovered in the air above the eager J-Team as they glared at all the villains.

"This madness ends now!" Jackie declared.

"Yeah, what he said!" Irma exclaimed.

"The Guardians!" Wong and Cedric shouted in surprise at the same time.

"Chan!" Valmont, Vanessa, Origami, and Hak Foo all exclaimed.

"Agent Tag." Necrosis glared at Jackie, still mistaking him for his secret-agent-nemesis.

Chang saw how everyone was glaring at the combined group of the J-Team and WITCH and quickly took advantage of everyone's mutual hatred as he climbed onto his own limousine. "Destroy them!" He ordered as nearly every villain charged at the heroes who all charged in response as well.

As they clashed, Chang hopped off his limousine and opened the trunk to reveal a container which he opened to show an assortment of other prosthetic hands shaped into fists and open hands for various uses. He removed his jade-prosthetic and put on a black one that had blades coming out of its fingers.

Jackie and Will found themselves surrounded by all three Dark Chi Warriors, as well as Hoyle, while Tohru clashed with Cedric, locking hands as they pressed their own strength against one another. Irma flew and landed in front of Ratso who quickly used the Snake Talisman to turn invisible, much to her frustration before he quickly grabbed her in a bear-hug. El Toro found himself face-to-face with Origami who transformed his whole body to take the form of a paper-warrior, but El Toro stood his ground as he readied himself for Origami's onslaught of paper-blade attacks. Taranee backed up towards a wall and flew up to avoid a punch of super strength from Chow, who used the Ox Talisman before he tried to use the Dragon Talisman to shoot her down as Taranee responded with her own fire attack. Viper jumped and landed in front of Vanessa as the villainess cracked her whip and flailed it at Viper who cartwheeled back to avoid it while Vanessa went off in pursuit.

"Payback time!" Finn exclaimed as he flew with the Rooster Talisman and shot heat-beam eyes at Hay Lin who flew in the air to avoid them while Finn pursued her.

"Flying Dragon Corkscrew!" Hak Foo exclaimed as he jumped and spun his body with his arms outward for a spinning attack straight at Cornelia who flew in the air to avoid it as Caleb ran and charged him, but Hak Foo was ready. "Iron Gorilla Fist!" He threw a punch at Caleb who gasped as he couldn't avoid it and was sent flying and crashing into the crates.

"Oh, you're gonna pay for that!" Cornelia flew in and delivered a flying kick to Hak Foo's face to knock him down.

Captain Black had a gun pointed at a certain mad scientist. "Dr. Necrosis, you are under arrest."

"I think not, Captain." Necrosis fired a laser beam from his gauntlet at Captain Black, forcing him to roll out of the way as he fired his gun, but Necrosis' gauntlet activated an energy shield to block the bullets.

Daolon Wong glared at the battle, specifically the Guardians, Chan, and their allies who just arrived. It wasn't supposed to be like this, if it weren't for these fools, he and Cedric would already have the Heart; of course, Valmont and all the other criminals all had a hand in it as well with their own greed.

"I will destroy you all." Wong snarled.

"Hey Uh-gah-leee!"

Wong turned toward the furthest end of the docks to see Uncle glaring at him while holding his titular blowfish. Wong vanished in a puff of dark blue smoke before reappearing five feet in front of Uncle. They both glared at each other before they shot blasts of their respective Chi-Magic at one another, resulting in a beam-clash.

Meanwhile; Jade, Paco, and Blunk watched this large battle royal ensuing from a nearby alleyway. "Now this is a fight!" Jade exclaimed in joy as she motioned punches.

"For once Jade, I agree." Paco said. "I even got popcorn!" He brought out a bowl from seemingly out of nowhere.

"Oooh!" Blunk took a piece and ate it before Jade and Paco ate some of it as well while watching the show.

Will had flown Jackie back as they tried to avoid the flying cards, shuriken, and hammer tossed at them by the Dark Chi warriors and Hoyle before coming towards a small building.

"Will, put me down." Jackie told her, causing her to let him go and land on the ground where he picked up a steel pole, while Will took a chain off the wall just as the Dark Chi warriors were already on Jackie. He parried the pole against all three of their weapons while Will spun and flailed the chain like a whip to block the cards Hoyle threw in her direction.

Jackie paired his pole against Gan's staff before putting one end to the ground and using his feet to lock it down before striking Gan in the face with his pole; he ducked to avoid a toss of the shuriken by Ren but apparently didn't see Chui coming in from behind with his hammer, but Jackie noticed his large shadow and turned around to block the hammer in time, but the large hammer was able to bend the pole beyond recognition, but Jackie still used it to bend himself backwards to pull Chui down where he used his feet to push and kick Chui back into Ren and Gan and knock them down.

However, Jackie didn't have time to celebrate as he noticed Valmont trying to make a break for it. "Valmont is getting away!"

"Go, we can handle this!" Will told Jackie as she still used her chain to beat back Hoyle's cards. Jackie nodded and ran off after Valmont.

Will flew up into the air and was able to avoid the cards that Hoyle threw at her, she got close enough to try and flail the chain at him, but he rolled out of the way. "Pick a card, any card!" He used his magnetic gloves to shoot out an entire deck of cards that quickly surrounded Will and spun at a pace so rapidly that one could almost see electricity from friction generated by their intense speed. "Sorry sweetie, but I still have my ace up my sleeve."

Will rolled her eyes. "And I thought Hak Foo was annoying."

Hoyle laughed but was caught off guard by Jade who came flying in with a kick to his stomach to knock him down and lose control of the card-cage he kept Will trapped in. Hoyle got up and glared at Jade, but couldn't react in time to avoid Will's fist to his face, which was enough to knock him unconscious.

"Thanks Jade." Will said to her friend.

"No problem… Look out!" Jade warned Will in time as she moved out of the way from a slash of Chang's bladed prosthetic hand. He took a combative stance to show his bladed weapon as Will took her own Kung Fu stance that Jackie taught her and made a hand gesture to bring it on.

* * *

Valmont had managed to run out the backdoor of the warehouse and make it to a helicopter, which either Vanessa or Necrosis piloted to get here, but it didn't matter to him for it would serve as his escape route. However, Jackie suddenly leapt in front of him, blocking his path to the helicopter.

"Going somewhere, Valmont?" Jackie glared at him.

The crime lord glared at his nemesis briefly before he put on a casual smile. "Long time no see, Chan. I certainly didn't expect to see you here, or among fairies it would seem. These young ladies must be something truly special if you're associated with them. Tell me, what exactly is it that makes them so special? I doubt it's solely that 'Heat of Kandrakar' trinket everyone is so obsessed with."

"They are not your concern." Jackie told him. "The only thing you should be concerned with is which prison will you be locked up in."

"Well, if that's the case, then how about one last fight. For old time's sake." Valmont stood firmly as he held his cane and made his own combative stance. Jackie was the first to attack with a series of punches and kicks that Valmont blocked and paired with his cane and arms. Valmont responded with a punch, which Jackie avoided before delivering multiple kicks towards Jackie's chest to knock him back. But Jackie got back up with a flip to deliver a roundhouse and knock Valmont down.

However right as Valmont got up both he and Jackie backed away to avoid a certain large shuriken thrown in between them before it returned to the hands of the Dark Chi Warrior Gan who jumped in along with Ren and Chui and surrounded the pair.

"Perfect." Valmont said sarcastically. "More uninvited guests."

* * *

Back at the docs; Tohru continued to press against Cedric as they continued to grapple. But Cedric turned his body around to flail his tail at Tohru and send him crashing into a warehouse. Cedric approached a pile of debris, but Tohru's fist shot out of the pile into Cedric's face to stagger him back as Tohru stood up and picked up two large pieces of stone debris in his hands and ran at Cedric to punch his make-shift weapons into Cedric's body and face before raising his hands and sandwiching the rocks into Cedric's head; crushing the rocks, but also doing some damage to Cedric before Tohru ran and tackled him off the docks and into the water below.

Captain Black was forced to take cover behind some boxes to avoid the energy blasts of Necrosis' gauntlet. He tried to shoot back with his pistol, but the gauntlet's energy shield was able to block all the bullets. Captain Black took cover again as Necrosis retaliated. He searched inside his coat pocket for anything useful and happened to find a can of knock-out spray. Though he couldn't get close enough to actually use it, it did give him an idea. He threw it over the boxes, Necrosis shot it, thinking it was a weapon; but the blast spread the anesthetic gas over the area, also creating a smokescreen to blind Necrosis as the mad scientist coughed and covered his mouth wile closing his eyes. But this left him open for Captain Black to punch him in the face and knock him out just as the makeshift smokescreen began to vanish.

"Knock out spray, never leave Section 13 without it." Captain Black commented.

Viper reeled back to avoid a whip attack from Vanessa that seemed to snap and crack open a box. Viper was quick to grab a broken piece of wood and use it as a makeshift shield to block the whip, allowing her to move in closer and deliver a kick to Vanessa's hand, forcing her to let go of her own whip and shoving the wooden plank up into Vanessa's face, blinding her and letting Viper punch through the wood into Vanessa's face, dealing twice the damage and sending her siding back onto the ground unconscious.

"I win." Viper tossed her hair back.

El Toro was put at a distance to avoid the paper-lashes from Origami's arms. This was not good for El Toro, due to being a luchador, he was a close-distance fighter; but Origami had an advantage with _long_-distance. El Toro grunted in pain as a paper slash grazed his arm, causing a bleeding cut. He glanced behind him to see Taranee in a fire-clash with her own fire powers against Chow's Dragon Talisman. He quickly got an idea.

Taranee had landed on the ground to face Chow when she heard El Toro call her. "Senora!" She turned around to see El Toro running toward her. "Tag team!" He slapped her hand to exchange opponents as he ran and tackled the surprised Chow. Taranee turned around to see Origami and smiled as she figured out what El Toro was trying to do.

Origami lashed at Taranee with his extended paper arms, but Taranee flew in close and created a fireball in her hand. "Hey, you know what happens when paper meets fire, right?" She warned with a somewhat sinister grin; causing Origami's paper face to form into one of worry as Taranee approached him and he backed away out of fear of being burnt up to ash in seconds.

With fear fulling his body, Origami folded his own body into a paper-origami bird to take flight with Taranee flying after him as El Toro squared off against Chow. The wrestler pulled Chow into a bear-hug, but Chow used the strength from the Ox Talisman to not only break out of his grip but also lift El Toro's larger body into the air.

"Me strong like Ox!" Chow joked and insulted El Toro before throwing him all the way at a wall, causing it to crack from the impact.

Blunk and Paco winced as they saw that. "Mask man in trouble!" Blunk exclaimed.

"Yes, El Toro needs our help! Come on!" Paco grabbed Blunk's hand and ran toward the battle.

El Toro groaned as he picked himself up to face Chow once more as he pointed his palm with the Dragon Talisman, ready to blast him. El Toro took his titular wrestling stance, if he was going down, he was going down fighting!

"El Toro Fuerte!" The wrestler looked behind Chow to see Paco and Blunk holding a long rope, both the boy and passling pulled from opposite directions to stretch it out. El Toro smiled at his protégé's message before he ran at high-speed past Chow, much to his confusion. El Toro ran into the rope, turned his body around as it stretched back and he sling-shot himself at Chow and slammed his head into the surprised Chow to send him flying and crashing through several boxes near the warehouse.

El Toro laughed. "Good work Paco." He patted his protégé on the head. "You as well, Blunk."

Blunk laughed as he held the rope in his hand. "Trade mask for rope. Good deal, yes?"

"El Toro Fuerte never removes his mask." The wrestler said his code with pride, much to Blunk's dismay as Paco ran to Chow's unconscious body and picked up the Dragon, Ox, Monkey, and Rat Talismans.

Irma looked all over for the invisible Ratso. "Again? This is getting annoying!" She then pulled the water out from under the docks and began to spray it all over just like before, this exposed Ratso as his invisible form was covered with water; allowing Irma to come in with a punch and knock Ratso down. "I'll be taking these to." She reached into Ratso's coat and pulled out the Snake, Rabbit, Horse and Sheep Talismans. No way she was forgetting about all that again.

Will backed up to avoid the lashes of Chang's clawed prosthetic. Jade was quick to run to the open trunk of Chang's limo and saw the other prosthetic hands inside. "Will could use some helping hands." She turned to her friend who just ducked over a slash, before Will gave a spinning kick to knock Chang down.

"Will, catch!" She heard Jade call her name as she tossed her two prosthetic hands, one was a fist and the other was an open palm. Will looked curiously before a spoon popped out of the fist-prosthetic and a toothbrush out the other hand. Jade laughed nervously. "Always brush after soup?"

Will's eyelids lowered but was brought back to reality as Chang lashed at her with his claw again; but she used the spoon-hand to block and parry his claw before shoving the toothbrush into Chang's mouth. She pulled it out and looked in confusion as she just realized she could fly and had super strength.

"Oh, why do I even need these?" She told herself before throwing them away, she was able to clap her hands to catch a vertical strike from Chang's claw. He tried to pull away, but Will's grip was too strong. "By the way, Freddy Krueger called. He wants his weapon back!" She used her wings to hover in the air and spin her body, while consequently spinning Chang at a speed that seemed to look like Will was making a tornado before finally letting go and sending him flying and crashing into a large set of boxes.

"Nice one." Jade gave a friendly point to Jade.

"Thanks." Will smiled back but both looked in surprise to see Tohru trying to climb back up onto the docks from the water, but was suddenly pulled back in by Cedric.

"Tohru!" Jade exclaimed with worry.

"I got him!" Will immediately flew and dove into the water.

She swam as fast as she could to see Cedric holding Tohru in a strong grip with his arms and tail; the giant snake-man was trying to drown and squeeze him at the same time; but Will's own swimming talent, plus her enhanced physical abilities as a Guardian helped her to not only catch up to them at high speed but even deliver a punch to Cedric's face, forcing him to let go of Tohru. Will was quick to grab Tohru's hand and fly back up as fast as she could.

They made it to the surface as Will helped Tohru to catch his breath on the docks while Jade quickly ran up to him. "You okay?" Will asked her.

"I am…" Tohru said in between breaths. "Thank you, Will."

"No problem, it's what friends do." Will smiled, causing Tohru to smile back.

"Thank each other later! Snake guy's back!" Jade pointed to the water as Cedric emerged from it with a roar. He was about to lash out when Viper came in with a kick to his face before landing on her feet.

"Guys like you give snakes a bad name." Viper glared at Cedric who hissed in her direction before howling in pain as Captain Black came in with his pistol, shooting Cedric multiple times. Though the bullets did penetrate enough for the snake-man to bleed, it wasn't deep enough for any permanent damage.

He hissed with a glare as he faced Will, Tohru, Jade, Viper, and Captain Black; all of whom looked ready to fight him with everything he had. "Perhaps there are too many." He said to himself before diving back into the water for a strategic retreat.

"Yeah, get lost you cowardly snake!" Jade blew raspberries in the direction Cedric retreated. "Uh… no offense Viper."

"None taken."

Hay Lin continued to fly in the air as Finn continued to chase her, blasting eye beams the whole way. As she flew, she also noticed Taranee flying after Origami in a paper-bird form while the Fire Guardian threw blasts of her own element at Origami, which he was able to avoid. An idea popped into her head as she flew closer towards Taranee's chase.

"Hey Taranee, throw a bunch of flames at me!" Hay Lin called to her, causing the bespectacled girl to look in surprise.

"What?! You wanna get burned?!"

"Just do it! Trust me!" Hay Lin exclaimed. Taranee shrugged before generating a large cluster of flames in her hand which she launched at Hay Lin who began to spin her body and generate a powerful wind current that she created a large tornado around herself. The flames were pulled into the tornado and a flaming vortex began to form around Hay Lin.

Taranee saw where this was going and threw even more flames at the vortex; causing it to become much more powerful before Hay Lin exploded her arms out to send a large burst of flaming winds all around the sky; hitting Finn at full force and blasting him towards the docks while a wave grazed Origami's flying form, already causing his body to catch fire.

Origami screamed as he flew and dived straight towards the water to put out the flames. He popped out of the water in his humanoid form and could not access his powers while wet and only looked in fear as Taranee hovered triumphantly over him.

"Yeah, wet paper. It's a real drag isn't it?" Taranee teased as she grabbed Origami's wet paper body and began to crunch it up into a wet ball, much to Origami's dismay.

Finn hit the ground hard. His suit was charred a bit and he was covered in some minor burns while also semi-conscious. Hay Lin landed near his downed body. "Sorry, but since you're immortal you should live. Speaking of which, you won't be needing these anymore." She reached into his coat pocket to pull out the Rooster, Pig, Dog, and Tiger Talismans.

Cornelia used her earth-powers to telekinetically pull together multiple boxes to take the form of a large humanoid beast; similar to what she did with the wooden table back in Meridian, but on a larger scale. She motioned for the box-monster to try and punch Hak Foo but he leapt into the air to avoid the strike.

"Angry Crow takes flight!" Hak Foo took to the air and stuck out his foot to kick the 'head-box' off the box-monster, causing it to fall apart as he landed and struck Cornelia across the face to knock her down. He was about to come in again with another punch, but Caleb brought a crowbar up to block his fist as he smiled cockily at the Black Tiger.

"Didn't your mother ever teach you it's not nice to hit a lady?" Caleb used the crowbar like he would a sword to strike Hak Foo, but he blocked and parried with his fists alone.

"Octopus Fists of Fury!" Hak Foo unleashed a volley of rapid punches to knock the crowbar out of Caleb's hands and knock him down. "Guillotine kick!" He tried to bring his foot down, but Caleb moved out of the way just in time. "Gorilla snaps frail twig!"

"Um excuse me…" Cornelia tried to pull herself up, getting Hak Foo's attention. "But what was that last one…?"

"I said… Gorilla snaps…!" He didn't finish as this distracted him long enough for Cornelia to throw a large box at him and knock him back.

"You talk too much." Cornelia smirked as she brushed her hands off before offering Caleb a hand up, which he was quick to take with a smile.

The only fight still going on was Uncle who shot multiple Chi blasts from his blow-fish to counter the Dark Chi blasts from Daolon Wong who waved his staff to create a wave of his dark magic, which Uncle was able to cancel out with a wave of his own Chi magic. The two seemed to be evenly matched.

"For a novice, your skills are impressive." Daolon Wong granted. "However, you are a fool to think you can defeat me alone."

"Good thing Uncle is not alone." Uncle pointed behind Wong, who turned in surprise to see Caleb, Tohru, Viper, El Toro, Captain Black, even Jade and Paco glaring at him, with Blunk on top of Tohru's shoulder. They were joined in by Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin who hovered around him.

Wong growled as he knew he couldn't beat everyone present. "You may have won this battle, but the war has only just begun!" He waved his staff to create a dark blue smokescreen. When it vanished, Wong was gone.

"Man, I hate it when the bad guys pull a last minute get-away." Jade commented. However, none of them seem to notice Finn, Ratso, and Chow, were each enveloped by the same kind of spell by Daolon Wong and vanished when it disappeared.

"Well, at least we won, right?" Hay Lin voiced.

"Did you get all the Talismans?" Uncle asked, getting to the point.

Hay Lin, Irma, and El Toro showed that they each had four of the Talismans, bringing the total to Twelve.

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, and twelve! Yep, we got all twelve!" Jade counted to see they were all there.

Before anyone else could celebrate, Will's eyes widened in realization when she realized someone was missing from their group. "Wait… where's Jackie?!"

* * *

Back at the helipad, both Jackie and even Valmont were put on the defensive from the Dark Chi Warriors they were still fighting, despite their master having fled the battle. Jackie dodged and ducked under Chui's hammer swings and Gan's staff-strikes. Valmont tried to parry his cane against Ren's bladed-weapon, but it easily cut through and grazed Valmont's chest; knocking him down and forcing the Crystal Skull that he had stored in his pocket to fall onto the ground.

Valmont felt his bleeding wound on his chest when he saw the skull, and his eyes widened when he looked at his palm to see there was some blood present. Didn't that hooded man say that blood was needed to activate this skull's power? With Gan looming over him and no time to think, Valmont placed his bloody palm onto the skull; causing it to glow a bright blue color. This glow caught Jackie's attention as well as all three Dark Chi Warriors.

The glow changed from a bright blue to a vibrant red color as the glow enveloped Valmont and he was suddenly engulfed by a bright flash of red light. When the glow subsided, Jackie gave an audible gasp at Valmont's new appearance.

He stood at least twelve feet tall with a large hulking appearance. His body appeared to have been completely enveloped in a large red skeleton made almost entirely out of energy with glowing purple crystal eyes. Inside the skeleton, Valmont's form was still normal except for a red aura around him, and he appeared to be controlling the skeleton-armor with his body inside. He bent his arms and fingers, and the skeleton armor did as well.

"Well, I'll be damned." Valmont chuckled evilly as he looked at his newfound stature. "I've never felt this kind of power since the Talismans! It appears it was wise to keep that skull."

The Dark Chi Warriors drew their weapons again as they leapt at Valmont, but his armored hands were able to catch Gan and Chui before smashing them into each other and causing them to vanish into smoke. He raised his hands and smashed both onto Ren, causing him to vanish into a puff of smoke as well.

"Well, I'd say that was a good warm up. Wouldn't you agree, Mr. Chan?" Valmont cracked his armored knuckles as he approached Jackie menacingly.

"Bad day." Jackie uttered as he dodged a punch, which created a large crater on the ground. Jackie maneuvered under the juggernaut's legs and tried to get some distance but Valmont grabbed the helicopter and lifted into the air before throwing it at Jackie. He was able to barley dodge it as he fell to the ground and let it pass over him where it crashed and exploded in the warehouse.

Jackie was suddenly pinned underneath the foot of the armored giant as Valmont raised another fist. "Oh, how long I've waited for this! It's a shame though Chan, I'll truly miss our periodic get-togethers." However Valmont was blasted back by a large blast of fire; courtesy of Jade with the Dragon Talisman.

"Keep waiting, Valmont!" Jade exclaimed as she shot another blast at him. The Guardians joined in the fray as Taranee, Irma, and Hay Lin shot blasts of fire, water, and wind respectively to add with Jade's own fire power. Cornelia used her powers to pull large rocks out of the ground and telekinetically threw them at Valmont. Captain Black, El Toro, Tohru, and Viper even ran in as well while Uncle, Will, Caleb, Paco, and Blunk came to help up Jackie.

"Jackie, are you okay?" Will asked him.

"Yes, I am fine. Thank you"

"What the heck is that!?" Paco pointed in surprise at the giant glowing skeleton that Valmont was controlling as it waved its arms around to swipe back everyone surrounding and attacking it.

"Uncle, please tell me you've seen this before." Jackie hopped.

"No, Uncle has never seen glowing skeleton before." Uncle replied.

"I have." Caleb began. "I read about in a legend; the Armor of the Crystal Skull. Add a drop of your own blood to it, and it becomes a near unstoppable armor of solid magic that no normal weapons can destroy."

"Blunk seen Phobos place skull in vault in castle." Blunk said. "Never seen it use before."

"So, how do we stop it?" Jackie asked.

"The legend says, you can destroy the armor if the skull is removed. But it would take an immense amount of strength." Caleb said.

"Good thing. Ox Talisman of Strength, very handy." Uncle said as they saw everyone trying to fight.

Valmont waved his arms to shoo away the Guardians surrounding him. He heard El Toro giving is titular yell as well as Tohru yelling as they both ran towards him. Valmont raised both his arms to smash them, but El Toro caught his right fist with little effort, courtesy of the Ox Talisman he was using while Tohru used his own muscle but had much more trouble than El Toro. This let Valmont lift Tohru up and send him smacking into El Toro as well as Hay Lin and Taranee who were nearby; knocking them down.

Valmont felt several blasts on his back and turned to see Jade and Captain Black shooting blasts of fire and eyebeams as they each had the Dragon and Pig Talismans respectively. This only seemed to irritate him as he ran up to try and smash them back; but Viper had managed to climb on top with the Snake Talisman rendering her invisible. She reached into the rib cage in the back to try and pull Valmont out by the shirt. However, he was able to reach behind and grab her before throwing her at Cornelia and Irma, knocking them down as well.

"Insects! All of you!" Valmont exclaimed with evil glee. "Bow before the master of the Dark Hand, and the soon-to-be master of the world!"

"I think not, Valmont." Jackie called to him with a challenge.

"Chan, even now you still defy me?! Even after witnessing my power?!" Valmont exclaimed.

"Those who depend solely on power Valmont, find themselves defenseless without it." Jackie said in a wise tone.

"Spare me your fortune cookie nonsense. I will squash you once and for all!" Valmont ran after Jackie who lured him away from the group.

"Come on, we gotta help him!" Jade was about to run after him, but Uncle and Caleb stopped her.

"Jade wait, you're Uncle has a plan!" Caleb told her.

"But…" Jade tried to protest.

"Listen to rebel-boy, and trust Jackie." Uncle stated.

Will flew down and put an assuring hand on Jade's shoulder. "Don't worry, Jackie and I got this." She turned to a certain wrestler. "Hey El Toro, you still got the Ox Talisman on you?"

* * *

Jackie had managed to run, jump, and parkour over several boxes and through an alleyway to avoid the relentless onslaught of Valmont's strikes with his skeletal armor. He had made it back towards the dock where the fighting all took place and found himself with nowhere left to run and the water behind him as Valmont approached him menacingly.

"It would seem Chan that you have finally ran out of tricks." Valmont sneered.

Jackie however wasn't the least bit intimidated. "You're right Valmont. _I _may have ran out of tricks…"

"But I still got some!"

Will suddenly flew straight down and grabbed the skull-head of the armor.

"What?! Get off me at once!" Valmont tried to reach up, but Will had already began to pry the skull off. Her own strength as a Guardian alone was amazing enough, but with the power of the Ox Talisman, her physical strength had shot through the roof. With a powerful heave and a yell, Will was able to pull the skull off the armor; causing its glow to vanish as Valmont could already feel the power draining.

"NO!" He exclaimed as the red glowing bones around him, as well as the red aura surrounding his body, completely vanished before Valmont himself fell onto the ground; only to be confronted by Jackie with crossed arms and a smirking Will who held the Crystal Skull in her hand.

"You lose." Will smirked.

"You said you'd miss our 'get-togethers' Valmont, but I certainly won't." Jackie said. "But I'll be sure to visit you in your prison cell."

Valmont glared as he reached into his coat pocket. "Not today, Chan!" He quickly pulled out a black sphere which he threw into the air before it exploded in a flash of light; forcing Will and Jackie to shield their eyes and giving Valmont an opportunity to dive into the water and swim away.

The flash vanished, as did the crime lord who unleashed it. "What the?! Where'd he go?!" Will looked around. Jackie however could only sigh as a part of him expected this.

* * *

Less than five minutes later; multiple police units, including Section 13 units, all came in to make multiple arrests. Several boats also patrolled the water to find anyone that may have tried to swim away. Chang, all three of his bodyguards, Vanessa, Necrosis, and Hoyle had been led into a police-van in cuffs while Origami had been placed in a box of bullet-proof plexiglass that he couldn't cut as he was led into the van via a dolley-cart before the door closed and it drove off.

Captain Black spoke with some police officers and his own agents before turning and walking toward his own open van where Jackie, Will, Jade, Taranee, Cornelia, Viper, Uncle, Irma, Hay Lin, El Toro, Tohru, Caleb, and Paco all sat. The Guardians have since transformed into their human forms.

"Necrosis, Chang, Barone, and Origami have all been detained along with any henchman they brought." Captain Black told them. "However, we have combed the entire area. No sign of Valmont, his Enforcers, or that giant snake and the old wizard."

Jackie sighed. "Somehow I'm not too surprised."

"I can't speak for Valmont; but I'm assuming that Cedric and Wong have returned to Meridian by now." Caleb assumed.

"So, if the Dark Hand is still at large…" Will looked worried. "I mean, Valmont already knows where I live, since he stole the Heart…"

"Don't worry." Captain Black assured. "I've already assigned Section 13 to have all your homes under surveillance. If Valmont or his cronies even sneezes in your families' direction, we'll be there with a hanky and a pair of handcuffs."

That the five girls, as well as Jackie, to sigh with relief. "Thanks Captain Black." Taranee told him.

Captain Black nodded when he realized someone was missing. "Hey, where is that toad-thing?"

"Passling left in sewers." Uncle dismissed.

"Blunk probably returned to Meridian as well." Tohru guessed. "Or the nearest dumpster."

"Okay, Blunk aside, I'm still psyched out at you guys!" Irma turned to Viper and El Toro. "I mean seriously; you guys don't have any magic powers and you _still _kicked serious butt!"

"Oh man, the J-Team is so amazing!" Hay Lin exclaimed in joy. "I so can't wait for our next mission together!"

"Yeah, we could really use the help." Cornelia agreed.

Caleb also smiled and nodded. "I have to admit, between you and this Section 13, Earth doesn't seem to be short of impressive warriors."

Viper and El Toro both smiled. "Keep the compliments coming." Viper said almost smugly. "But not for much longer, we gotta go."

"Huh? You're leaving already?" Will looked in surprise.

"Si. I have a wrestling match in a few days." El Toro confirmed.

"And I have a job to get back to." Viper added. "But don't worry, next time you kids are in a pinch, Jade knows who to call." She gave Jade a wink, causing her to smile.

"Well Jade, El Toro may be the best…" Paco began.

"And Jackie may be better…" Jade continued.

"But WITCH and the J-Team are the greatest!" They both stated at the same time causing them to high-five; with laughs and smiles shared among everyone.

* * *

_Meridian – Phobos' Throne Room_

Cedric, in his humanoid form, and Daolon Wong had returned and bowed before the dark prince. "Prince Phobos, though it pains me to tell you, but we have failed to retrieve the Heart of Kandrakar."

Phobos glared. "How disappointing."

"However, my lord." Wong began. "We did manage to acquire something of a consolation prize." With a wave of his staff and plum of dark blue smoke; Finn, Ratso, and Chow had suddenly appeared and fell flat on the ground.

"Oh man…" Finn groaned with his friends as he stood up.

"Where are we?" Chow looked around in surprise.

"Looks like Count Dracula's place." Ratso stated.

"Who is this?" Phobos questioned; causing the three to look towards him in surprise, having just seen this person for the first time.

"They call themselves the Dark Hand." Cedric revealed. "They were the ones who stole the Heart of Kandrakar in the first place."

"And as they are of the Earthly realm, their knowledge could prove useful." Wong added.

"Yo, who's the kid?" Chow asked.

"Oh, I know! He's Dracula's kid!" Ratso raised his hand excitedly to give his answer.

"I am no child!" Phobos stated as he stood up and walked down the stairs from his throne. "I am Prince Phobos, ruler of the realm of Meridian! And as of now, the three of you serve me. Now, bow before your Prince!"

The three Enforcers looked to each other questionably before Finn glared at him. "Finn don't bow before no…!" Suddenly he and his friends were engulfed in a yellow glow, courtesy of Phobos' own magic as he forced them on their knees to bow their heads to him.

"As I said, I am your master now." The Dark Prince reminded firmly. "Though it pains me to ally myself with such lower men, your knowledge of Earth should help me in my quest. So you _will _assist me, or you will suffer!" Phobos generated a surge of lightning-like magic in his hand for dramatic effect; which was big enough to scare the Enforcers.

"Got it!" Chow straightened up out of fear.

"We're swinging to your beat!" Finn added, putting himself in the same posture.

"All hail Prince Phobos!" Ratso saluted him, even though that was the wrong gesture for this type of occasion.

Lightning flashed around Phobos' Castle in Meridian. Though he didn't get the Heart of Kandrakar, he may have found the tools necessary to help locate his sister and gain her power for himself. This was only the beginning.

**Done!**

**Wow, this chapter turned out to be much larger than I thought; but then again, a lot has happened, and we had plenty of characters here.**

**So, J-WITCH has now officially met the J-Team and will count them and Section 13 as their allies in their battle against Phobos so that's good news.**

**The heroes have also managed to secure all twelve Talismans and even that Crystal Skull. (The Skull wasn't seen in either JCA or WITCH, it's my own original artifact; but don't expect to see it again anytime soon. It'll be placed in the vault in Section 13)**

**Bad news; Valmont managed to escape, and Hak Foo is going to be with him for the time being. So you can expect him to give Jackie and the girls some trouble as he'll act like a secondary antagonist with his own goals in mind.**

**Funny news; Phobos has forced Finn, Ratso, and Chow into his service. Though them helping him will be bad in the sense that it will help him to locate his sister; but it'll also be funny because… come on, it's Finn, Ratso, and Chow, they screw up in pretty much everything they do, and it is hilarious. LOL**

**So, once again, thank you all for your support and patience. Happy early Thanksgiving to you all! **


	6. Happy Birthday Will

**Hi everyone. Thanks again for your patience, we finally get back on track with the first season of WITCH for this fanfic. With nothing else needing to be said, let us get started. I do not own either JCA or WITCH.**

**Happy Birthday Will**

Finn, Ratso, and Chow; the three Enforcers of the Dark Hand, now under the employ of Prince Phobos sat in a small room within the castle of Meridian. Ratso looked out the window to see the dark and bleak landscape that served as the domain of the dark prince.

"Eh, it's not so bad." Ratso said. "Once you get passed all the storm clouds."

"How the hell did we end up here?" Finn questioned. "First, we take orders from a statue, then we got a ghost possessing Big V and opening up demon portals, now we're in another dimension taking orders from some kid?"

"Yeah is it just me, or is our luck just that sucky?" Chow questioned.

"Maybe it won't be so bad." Ratso said for the sake of optimism. "Least we get to live in a castle from now on."

Before either of his friends could reply, the door opened to reveal the humanoid form of Cedric. "You three, come with me."

Cedric led the Enforcers throughout the dark castle and deep underneath it; all the way to a dark cavern that led straight toward a lake at the very bottom of the castle with multiple black tree roots leading from the castle and down into the lake. The three Enforcers looked in surprise to see not only Phobos himself bathing in the lake, but Daolon Wong using some form of dark magic from his scepter to analyze the water.

"Uh… we're not interrupting anything… weird right?" Finn asked Cedric, who chose to ignore the question.

"It is as I feared." Wong informed Phobos. "The water is not as fluent with magic as it once was. I believe that the lifeforce of Meridian's own land has been dwindling since your sister was born, my prince."

Phobos had a slight scoff. "The need to find her has never been greater."

"Aw." Ratso practically gushed. "He wants to find his little sister. That's sweet." He was however silenced as Finn and Chow elbowed him slightly.

"You three." Phobos got their attention. "You hail from Earth, tell me how I would go about finding someone."

"Uh… we're gonna need more details than that, buddy." Chow told him.

Phobos sighed as he knew they had a point. "Thirteen years ago, my sister was taken at birth shortly after our parents were killed. She hadn't even been named. She was taken across the veil and now lives in the Earth city on the other side; more than likely she wasn't told of her heritage in order to protect her, so she would remain anonymous even now."

"Well… you could put up a missing person's report." Ratso suggested.

"Or look up birth records." Chow also suggested.

"Birth records, you say?" Daolon Wong asked, intrigued.

"Eh… yeah. City Hall usually keeps records of all the people who are born in the town." Finn explained. "They even separate those who were adopted."

"Good." Phobos said. "You three will escort Daolon Wong and Cedric to this 'City Hall'. If we know all who were born there, we can narrow our search to those who were not."

* * *

_Earth – Section 13_

After getting all the necessary paperwork filled and procedures taken care of, the law enforcement agency known as Section 13 had successfully been transferred to Heatherfield. Their base was underground, just like in San Francisco, complete with a telephone entrance as before. At the moment, the head of Section 13 was currently in a meeting with his lifelong friend.

"So, let me see if I understand this right." Captain Black summed up. "This Phobos-character is looking for his younger sister in order to take her power for himself and keep himself on the throne in his world?"

"Yes, that is what Caleb told us." Jackie confirmed as he handed Captain Black a sheet of paper. "Here is a physical description of Phobos. Siblings do bare a resemblance to each other, so it may help us to narrow our search down for the heir."

"Even so, it's not a whole lot to work on. Anything else? Like maybe a name?" Black asked.

"I'm afraid not." Jackie shook his head. "According to Caleb, she was brought to Earth as a baby and hadn't even been named yet."

"I see." Captain Black sighed. "Well, we'll start looking and if we find anything, you'll be the first to know."

"Thank you, Augustus. I can't tell you just how much help you've been to me." Jackie stood up to shake his friend's hand.

"It's no problem Jackie, really I'm happy to help." Captain Black smiled as he shook Jackie's hand before the martial artist left.

* * *

_Sheffield Institute_

Will had stepped out of her mother's car just as they came to a stop at the school's entrance. "Honey, are you sure you don't want to invite just twenty-five or thirty of your closest friends over?" Mrs. Vandom asked, in a playful tone that caused her daughter to wince slightly.

"No mom." Will sighed. "Not even just twenty-five or thirty of them."

"Okay birthday-girl. But remember, no matter how old you get, you'll always be my Pink Perky Poopy Pumpkin." Her mother teased before driving off.

"'Pink Perky Poopy Pumpkin?'" Will turned around in surprise to see a smirking Jade and Irma at the school's entrance. "How'd you earn _that _nickname?" Jade snickered; causing Will to roll her eyes as she tried to ignore than and walk into the school with Jade and Irma following her.

"So, it's your birthday huh?" Irma asked in an excited tone.

"Friday." Will stated. "Promise you guys won't do anything dumb like throw me a surprise party."

"I love surprise parties!" Irma stated before catching a slight glare from Will. "By that, I mean I hate and despise them." She pouted.

"That goes for you to Jade." Will told the black-haired mischievous girl. "Promise me you will _not _throw me a surprise party."

Jade sighed. "Fine." She raised her hand. "I promise not to throw you a surprise party."

"Uncross your fingers." Will said with lowered eyelids.

Jade showed both her hands, fingers uncrossed and all. "Okay, I promise that I will not throw you a surprise party." Jade said with an annoyed sigh, causing Will to smile triumphantly. _"At least, _I_ won't." _Jade hid her own smirk, already having something up her sleeve.

* * *

_Cafeteria_

"Does this look cooked to you?" Taranee asked as she sat down at a table with Cornelia and Hay Lin.

"Taranee, it's a carrot." Cornelia told her. "The only way it can harm you is if you're mugged by rabbits."

Irma and Jade quickly joined the group at their table. "Hey guys, guess whose birthday it is this Friday!"

Hay Lin gave an excited gasp. "I know! I know!" However, she didn't have a real answer to give. "Uh… I don't know."

"It's _Will's _birthday! Duh!" Jade stated.

"Are you guys gonna throw her a party?" Hay Lin asked, still excited.

"No, she made us promise not to." Irma said as she turned to see Will getting her lunch served. "I'll be right back. I gotta warn her about the fish, cause I think this was breaded when they caught it." Irma got up from her chair and ran towards Will to guide her to the more _edible _food.

"Yeah, _we _promised not to throw Will a party. But you guys didn't." Jade smirked towards the three remaining girls.

Cornelia's own 'evil' smirk mirrored that of Jade's. "Once again Jade, your mischief knows no bounds. We're definitely throwing Will a party."

"Whoa, hang on a minute." Hay Lin said. "You promised Will you wouldn't throw a party, so you're gonna have us throw her one instead?"

'Yeah, isn't that kinda mean?" Taranee asked.

"How is it mean?" Jade asked. "We're her friends, we should show her a good time on her big day, right?"

"My thoughts exactly." Cornelia agreed. "When she sees the party that _I'm _throwing, she'll be too jazzed to remember what she said. Hay Lin, you're gonna pick the theme and decorations, now we need a place to hold it. How about your Uncle's place, Jade?"

"Really?" Jade shot her an indifferent look. "You wanna hold a party near _Uncle_?"

Cornelia winced slightly. "Yeah… good point."

"What about your place?" Taranee asked Cornelia, causing the blonde to wince even further.

"Uh problem. My last part was so unbelievably great… my parents say I can't have another one until after I leave home."

* * *

_Later that day_

Jade, Cornelia, and Hay Lin walked through the mall to look for party supplies, while also escorting a certain rebel leader as well so that he could familiarize himself with the terrain of the city.

"So, Caleb, you are gonna learn all about parties." Cornelia told him.

"Uh you do know what parties are, right?" Jade joked.

"We have parties in Meridian!" Caleb stated. "To celebrate the end of Klunder-feast we cook and eat an ox!"

"What are you a Viking?" Jade asked. "We won't be hunting or cooking anything."

Cornelia spotted two of her friends. "Hey girls!" She called them over. One was a blonde with gray-blue eyes, the other had reddish-brown hair with blue eyes. "First, meet the new girl; this is Jade. Jade, meet Elyon and Alchemy."

"Hi." Jade waved.

"Hello." Alchemy smiled.

"Nice to meet you." Elyon greeted.

"Second, party this Friday; five o'clock, Irma's house!" Cornelia told them. "It's Will's birthday."

"It's a surprise, so don't tell Will. Or Irma." Hay Lin added.

"But you said it was at Irma's house." Elyon said, confused.

"Yeah, don't ask." Jade told them as Alchemy turned to see Caleb trying to look at a payphone and bang it on the side.

"Who's that?" Alchemy asked.

"Caleb, a new guy." Cornelia summed up.

The conversation was brought to a screeching halt as Uriah and his gang skateboarded near the group, after evading a mall security guard.

"Hey, how come Kurt, Clubber, and me didn't get invited to this party of yours?" Uriah questioned.

"Cause I'm not inviting creeps." Cornelia told them with crossed arms. "Oh, I'm sorry; Creeps, Jade and Caleb; Jade and Caleb, Creeps."

"Hi creeps." Jade waved with a teasing smirk as she and everyone else, side from Caleb walked away.

"Pleased to meet you." Caleb greeted casually. "Uh… are you related?" He was dragged away by Cornelia to avoid an awkward situation as the trio of bullies glared in their direction.

"I say we teach them a lesson." Uriah told his gang as the group walked away. "Remember that horror movie where the kids are terrified by guys in masks?"

"Where are we gonna find scary guys in masks?" Clubber asked with his low I.Q. as Uriah had a seemingly dangerous glint in his eye.

"Who were those guys? The Heatherfield's resident three stooges?" Jade joked; resulting in the four other girls laughing.

"Good one." Alchemy laughed.

"That's just Uriah and his gang." Elyon explained. "They think they're tough, but they're just a bunch of jerks. Just ignore them."

Jade scoffed. "Yeah, whatever they got; I think I can handle."

"Those are your tough guys?" Caleb asked Cornelia, fortunately outside the hearing range of Elyon and Alchemy. "Please, those Dark Hand people we fought were way tougher than that; and I'd like to see _them _last five seconds in a Skulldorian scream-cage."

"Caleb, you're a guest in this dimension, remember?" Cornelia reminded. "Not everyone here's a soldier, so you can't go all rebel leader and beat the crap out of people out nowhere. Even if they are jerks. Promise me."

Caleb didn't respond but gave something of a nod with a pouting face, causing Hay Lin to snicker.

"Aw, he's so cute when he sulks." Hay Lin teased.

* * *

_Later that night_

All seemed quiet in the park as there wasn't a single pedestrian, or even animal, in sight. However, this peaceful silence was interrupted by small surges of energy coming from behind a vacant shed. A blue light shinned as a portal suddenly appeared.

* * *

_Cornelia's Residence_

"Guess what the theme is!" Cornelia excitedly exclaimed to Taranee as she showed off the green decorations all over her room.

"Uh… the color you turn when you're gonna throw up?" The bespectacled girl guessed.

"Hello? Haven't you ever looked at Will's backpack? Her pencil case? And that dangly thing on her hat?" Cornelia reminded.

"I guess not attentively enough."

"She's got frogs on them!" Cornelia exclaimed. "She likes frogs, so Frog-Party! Are you loving it?!"

"It looks like someone barfed on the walls." Lilian, Cornelia's younger sister, commented, much to the blonde's irritation, but she choose to ignore that statement.

"And, vwalla! The snack-pond!" Cornelia showed Taranee a little kiddy pool.

"That's _my _waiting pool!" Lillian stated. "You can't have that!"

"Quiet, or I'll shave your bear." Cornelia threatened her sister, causing the younger girl to gasp as she protectively held her teddy bear. She turned her attention back to Taranee. "Okay, you're making floating lily-pad cupcakes with flies made out of raisins. And you gotta meet both Will and Irma after school, and make sure they're not dressed like total pigs, but without them figuring out why."

"Uh… how do I do that?" Taranee asked.

Cornelia then began to rethink her strategy. "Yeah, on second thought, better let Jade do that. She's way better at that sort of thing."

* * *

_Uncle's Shop_

"Hay Lin, Miss Lin, a pleasure to see you." Tohru greeted Hay Lin and her grandmother as they walked into the shop; with Jackie and Uncle walking out of the back room to greet them as well.

"May I ask for the reason of this visit?" Jackie asked.

"Grandma said she wanted to show you all something." Hay Lin answered as the elderly woman presented a rolled-up sheet of old paper.

"What is this?" Uncle asked.

"This was once part of a great map, hanging on Prince Phobos' wall." Yan Lin answered, drawing the attention of the group. "Years ago, a soldier, tired of serving the evil prince, tore off a crucial piece of Phobos' map, the part showing our world, and escaped. He gave the map to a passling, one who moved between worlds, and thus it came to me."

Jackie looked at the map and saw that it was blank. "I do not see anything written on this map. It appears to be blank… OW!"

"Of course, it is blank!" Uncle stated after just delivering a dope-slap to his nephew. "There is no magic to activate it yet!"

"In our world, the map is blank." Yan Lin explained. "Unless, activated by the Heart of Kandrakar, currently being held by our friend Will."

"But for what purpose is this map for?" Tohru asked. "Will this help us to locate the missing heir?"

"Unfortunately, no." Yan Lin continued. "As the Heart of Kandrakar is capable of locating and closing portals, the map will be able to locate any open portals, including locations where portals have appeared before, despite being closed."

"Which means we should be able to locate any enemies that Phobos may send to our world." Jackie realized.

"Why wait till now to give us this, Grandma?" Hay Lin asked. "Is it because my powers are finally mature enough, that I'm worthy?"

Yan Lin laughed slightly. "Nah, it was in the attic. I couldn't find it. But I found my old tennis racket though."

Before anyone else could respond, Jade suddenly appeared in front of them with a camera in her hands. "Hey guys! Smile!" She took a picture of the group, surprising them. "Thanks, gotta go!"

"Wha… Jade!" Jackie tried to call her, but she already ran upstairs. "What was that all about?"

"Oh, that reminds me!" Hay Lin voiced in realization. "Will's birthday is this Friday! We're hosting her party at Irma's house, you guys wanna come?"

"Uncle too old for parties!" Uncle said immediately.

Jackie smiled at Hay Lin. "I appreciate the invitation, but I feel a party of friends her age will be better."

"Okay, but I'll definitely bring you guys some leftover cake." Hay Lin smiled.

* * *

_Jade's Room_

Jade ran into her room and locked the door. Not that she was against people coming in, but she was making her birthday present for Will and didn't want anyone coming in to spoil it. This wasn't an ordinary birthday present however as Jade had already printed the surprise picture of Jackie, Hay Lin, Uncle, Tohru, and Yan Lin; she also had photos of Irma, Cornelia, Taranee, Will herself, even Caleb, and even a selfie of herself as well. Most of them, save for her own selfie, had images of the people looking in surprise, but that was alright. Jade also had a spell book she was 'borrowing' from Uncle's library downstairs and an empty picture frame.

"Sorry Uncle." Jade spoke to herself. "I know the whole 'magic must defeat magic' rule, but I just wanna do something special here." She really did want to do something special for Will; she was the first real friend she ever had, aside from Jackie, Tohru, Uncle, and even the J-Team. "Let's get to work." Jade flexed her hands with a smirk.

* * *

_Silver Dragon basement_

Jade wasn't the only one working on making a gift for Will; Caleb himself was contemplating what to give her. True he only just met her, but it was the least he could do for her as she not only saved him from Phobos' dungeon, but even Vathek's life during that whole missing-key-fiasco. But unlike Jade who was already making something, Caleb was at a lost as to what to give her.

"We've got to get Will something for her birthday." Caleb said to Blunk. "In Meridian, I'd give her the customary chicken-skin hat, but since things are different on Earth, that might not be a good idea." He tried to think. "Well, I do remember Cornelia buying this stuff that smells in tiny bottles."

"Blunk have smelly in bottle; gargoyle sweat!" Blunk pulled out a black vile of the green substance.

Caleb shook his head, doubting Will would like something like that. He turned around and happened to spot some spare wood lying in the corner, this gave him an idea of what to make her.

* * *

_Friday _

Classes ended and just as Will and Irma walked outside, they were greeted by Jade. "Hey guys. Guess what, that Boyzilla band is playing at the mall in a few hours!"

That got both girls excited. "You're kidding?! Let's go!"

"Yeah, but first…" Jade brought out some bags. "You should dress up? You know, look nice for the guys?"

"You don't seem like the girl who'd be into that, Jade." Irma pointed out.

"Oh, I couldn't care less about boybands; but you guys do, right?" Jade smirked; causing Will and Irma to look at each other suspiciously.

* * *

_Irma's House_

Hay Lin knocked on the front door, which Irma's father answered a few seconds later. "Hi Mr. Lair!" Hay Lin greeted. "Irma's not home, right? Great! Come on in guys!"

Mr. Lair looked in confusion as Hay Lin, Cornelia, Taranee, and several other kids brought in some party supplies.

* * *

_An Hour Later_

The sun went down as Jade led both the well-dressed Will and Irma to the house, much to Irma's confusion. "Uh, why are we stopping at my house again?"

"Because…" Jade opened the door dramatically to reveal the party inside.

"SURPRISE!"

Will couldn't believe it. "You guys promised!"

Cornelia threw her arms around both girls. "Can you believe Irma didn't wanna throw you a party just because you told her not to? Give me thirteen hugs birthday girl!"

* * *

Meanwhile; back at the park where the portal recently opened, nothing had passed through it since it's appearance. That is, until now. Electricity surged through it as Daolon Wong, Cedric, and the Enforcers all stepped out from Meridian and into Earth.

Wong smiled evilly. "Darkness shall soon begin its reign."

"So, uh… welcome to Earth." Ratso said to the shapeshifter, in his human form, and the Dark Chi Wizard.

"Well technically it be welcome _back _to Earth, since you guys had already been here, right?" Chow laughed nervously.

"Enough." Cedric told the Enforcers. "Take us to this 'City Hall', now."

"Okay, okay, don't get your tail in a bunch." Finn said as he and his friends led their dark escorts through the park.

* * *

_Uncle's Shop_

Tohru had finished sweeping the shop when he suddenly heard a crash coming from the kitchen.

"AIYA!"

The large man quickly ran into the kitchen to find Uncle standing in shock, having just dropped his teacup. "Sensei! What is it?!" Tohru asked urgently.

"Uncle has… the willies!" The elderly Chi Wizard voiced in dread.

* * *

_Irma's House_

Kids danced, music played, food was eaten, it appeared that this party was a grand time had by all. All except for the girl whom this party was made for.

"I can't believe you guys did this." Will grumbled to Irma and Jade with crossed arms.

"I had nothing to do with it!" Irma immediately said.

"It's true, she was totally clueless." Jade pointed out.

"But you also promised, Jade." Will glared at her.

"Yeah, _I _promised; but Cornelia didn't." Jade told her. "She planned this whole thing; I was kinda thinking though it be just the six of us with pizza or something."

"You clearly don't know Cornelia very well." Irma said to Jade.

Will sighed. "I'm gonna get something to drink." She walked away from the pair just as a boy with glasses and brownish-blonde lair walked up.

"Hey, thanks for inviting me Sweetie-Lips." He said to Irma, causing Jade to laugh.

"Sweetie-Lips?!" Jade laughed, resulting in Irma angrily gasping and glaring at the boy.

"I didn't invite you Martin! I didn't invite _anyone!" _She looked him right in the eye. "And don't you _ever _all me Sweetie-Lips!"

"I uh… didn't wanna say anything in front of the other guests…" The boy named Martin began. "But uh… there were flies on your cupcakes." He showed one 'fly' on his finger. "Don't worry though, I pulled them off." He stuck one in his mouth and realized it wasn't a fly at all. "Never mind, they're just raisins. I'll put em back, they're in my pocket."

Martin left as Irma sighed while pulling her hand down her face. Jade smirked in Irma's direction. "So, who's the boyfriend?"

"He's not my boyfriend!" Irma said immediately. "He's a total geek and stalker who's been on my feet ever since we meet!"

"Whatever you say." Jade shrugged teasingly, much to Irma's irritation.

* * *

Meanwhile; the Enforcers had led Wong and Cedric towards a large building in the middle of the park, which appeared to be closed for the night due to the lack of lights.

"Well this is it, City Hall." Finn presented.

"So, any you guys got a magic key or what?" Chow asked. Cedric said nothing as he simply transformed into his large serpent form and easily broke the door down with his strength before entering.

"Okay, that works to." Finn pointed out.

"That guy's really scary." Ratso said bluntly as they and Wong entered the building behind him.

However, as they walked inside, a boy was walking his dog pass the building when the dog caught an odd whiff and barked at the building. The boy looked up towards a window to see the silhouette of Cedric in the window, along with four other people, causing the boy to look in fright.

* * *

_Irma's House_

Caleb was about to walk inside and join the party but was stopped when a certain Passling grabbed onto his leg.

"Blunk help with gift. Blunk go inside!"

"No can't. They got enough frogs in there as it is." Caleb responded, having seen a few frog-decorations from the window before shaking Blunk off his leg and walking inside and closing the door behind him. However, as he did, two familiar girls approached him.

"Hi, remember me from the mall? Alchemy?"

"Remember me to? I'm Elyon."

"Yeah, I remember." Caleb turned around to give a friendly smile. "Caleb, nice to meet you again."

"Back off girls." Cornelia approached Caleb as she gave them a small stink-eye before turning to him. "Stick with me, or they'll tear you to pieces."

Irma washed some of the dishes in the kitchen as she saw her father walk down the stairs, much to her alarm. "Dad, no!" She began to push her dad back up the stairs.

"I just want to get the remote."

"I don't throw parties while you and mom are out of town, and you do not embarrass me when you are _in _town." Irma told him.

Back in the party, while everyone else appeared to be dancing, Caleb spotted Will alone on the coach with a drink and decided it was the best time to give her the gift he made for her.

"Hey." Caleb gave a friendly wave.

"Hey." Will grumbled.

"Not into parties, huh?" Caleb guessed.

"Nope."

"Well… you still get birthday gifts on Earth right?" Caleb handed his gift to Will, which she looked at in surprise. It was a piece of wood that had an image of Will, in her Guardian form, sitting on a cloud with stars around her, carved into it. There was even some coloring on her wings, it looked almost like stained glass.

"Wait… did… did you make this?" Will asked in surprise.

"Yep." Caleb confirmed. "I carved it out of some wood I found in Miss Lin's basement, and the wings are even dragon scales."

Will had to admit that she was impressed; not just with the gift but the effort Caleb put into it. "Thanks, you're really talented."

"Sure, no problem." Caleb smiled; glad Will liked his gift as he went back into the party.

As everyone continued to dance throughout the living room, Hay Lin and Jade both sat on a couch, eating some cake when they both saw Blunk outside the window, hopping up and down to be let in.

"Aw poor Blunk." Hay Lin looked in sympathy.

"Eh, wouldn't hurt to give him a little cake." Jade said as she opened the window as she and Hay Lin handed the Passling their cakes before closing the window so that nobody saw.

* * *

Meanwhile; on the other side of the fence of another house outside; Uriah kept watch as his gang sat behind the fence with some cheap horror-movie masks.

"When do we do it?" Clubber asked.

"We do it, when I say we do it." Uriah grumbled as he sat back down.

"Sure thing, Uriah." Clubber said. "Uh… when are you gonna say we do it?" He asked, resulting in Uriah scowling.

* * *

Back inside; Will looked around at the party and couldn't help but sigh. Not out of anger, but rather sadness. So, she simply walked out the door, with only Jade noticing that she left. Will sat down on the porch and looked at the gift Caleb gave her, though she was grateful for it, she wasn't too happy about the party and simply sat with a somber look on her face.

Jade came outside and sat down next to her. "Heh, nice picture." She saw Caleb's carving.

"Caleb made it." Will said. "Apparently the wings are dragon scales."

"Okay, you gotta admit that's pretty cool." Jade said with a small smile. "Guess rebel boy's good for something after all." She joked. Though Will did smile a bit, it was quick to fade. "Okay, what's going on? I get some people don't exactly like parties, but it's your birthday for crying out loud! Who doesn't love a birthday party!?"

Will sighed. "Look, I get what you and the others are trying to do, but it's not that I hate parties, I used to love them."

"_Used _to?" Jade asked.

"Before I moved to Heatherfield, I used to have a group of friends back at my old school." Will began. "At least I _thought _they were my friends. We even shared secrets together, I even told them about this boy I had a crush on. You know what they did? They hosted a little 'surprise party' for me, where they told pretty much everyone from school about my crush! I trusted them, and they stabbed me in the back and humiliated me in front of everyone! I thought they were my friends, yet they made me a laughing stalk in front of everyone! Even that boy I liked laughed at me!" Will placed her hands on her face as Jade couldn't help but look in sympathy.

"I… Will... I'm… I'm so sorry." Jade said sincerely. "But I would never do anything like that! Nor would Irma, Taranee, Hay Lin, not even Cornelia would be _that _shallow."

"I know you wouldn't." Will said honestly. "But… I just can't forget all that. As much as I want to. I'm not sure you'd understand."

"Actually, I do." Jade began as Will looked at her in surprise. "I didn't have any friends at all at my old school. I always talked about Uncle Jackie and our adventures, but no one believed me."

"Well, you kinda have to admit that all that magic stuff you talk about is pretty far-fetched." Will told her.

"Yeah, now that you mention it, you're right." Jade continued. "But they still all made fun of me for it and laughed at me. I was pretty much the freak of the school. That is until I met this boy named Seymour, he was nice. I thought he was my friend to, until I found out he was really a demon."

"Uh… a demon as in he was just a jerk?" Will asked.

"No, I mean a literal demon with wings, claws, and red eyes." Jade explained. "Shendu's brother, Hsi Wu the Sky Demon. We had his tail in Uncle's shop, so he used me to try and get it back. I know it's not the same but, I know how it feels to have a 'friend' stab you in the back. And it hurts."

This time, it was Will's turn to look in sympathy towards Jade; though their situations were quite different, they were still very much alike in the 'betrayal of one's trust area', as well as having no friends. "I'm really sorry Jade."

"Thanks." Jade said. "But I'm so over Wing-Boy. Because I got real friends; I got Jackie, Tohru, even Uncle and his garlic breath." She joked as Will laughed slightly. "Plus, now I got the rest of WITCH, and that includes you to. And I know you got all of us to, and unlike those other jerks who weren't really your friends, we got your back for real." Jade stood up as she offered Will a hand. "Come on, the party's still young, and we got plenty of cake."

Will smiled as she accepted Jade's hand. "Chocolate cake, right?"

"Yep." Jade led her friend back into the house.

* * *

Meanwhile; back inside the house, as Irma and Hay Lin cleaned off some plates, they overheard a radio message on Irma's dad's police radio.

"_Hey Tom, it's probably just a prank, but we got a call about some kinda lizard monster at city hall. Can you pop over and check it out?"_

"Lizard?" Irma gasped in realization. "If it's that Cedric-guy, my dad could get hurt! Get the girls!" She told Hay Lin as they both ran out of the kitchen.

As the party continued; both Irma's parents sat in their bedroom as Mrs. Lair sighed. "I remember when we got to go to all of her little parties."

Irma suddenly opened the door. "Mom, Dad, some of us are going for pizza. Could you keep the party going till we get back?"

This caused both parents to look excited. "Are you kidding?! I'm a _par-tah_ animal! Hey, remember when gave donkey-rides for your fourth birthday." He gave playful donkey-noises which only embarrassed Irma.

"Dad, please don't talk me out of this." Irma said before leaving.

"Come on honey." Mr. Lair said to his wife. "Let's show these kids how it's done!" He kissed her on the cheek before they got up.

By the time Irma got back downstairs; Will, Jade, Hay Lin, Taranee, and Cornelia had all gathered and were about to head out the door when Cornelia spotted Caleb talking with some girls, particularly Elyon and Alchemy, and they all had dreamy looks in their eyes.

"The world had better be in serious danger for me to leave Caleb alone with those girls." Cornelia grumbled before joining her teammates just as Mr. and Mrs. Lair came down.

Caleb spotted the six girls leaving the house. "Where are they going?"

"Pizza." Elyon answered.

"Where's that?" Caleb asked, resulting in the girls laughing thinking it was just a joke. Something told him it was a Guardian-emergency, however. "Um, you ladies will have to excuse me." He opened the window and jumped right out of it before running after the girls.

Elyon gave a dreamy sigh as she saw this. "Wrap him up, I'll take him."

However; Caleb wasn't the only one who noticed the girls leaving. Uriah and his gang also saw them. "Ah man, six of them together, even that new girl, too perfect. Let's go." He and his gang began to follow them.

As Caleb walked around the house, he spotted Blunk who just finished his cake that Jade and Hay Lin gave him. "Blunk!" He got the Passling's attention just as he noticed Uriah's gang following the girls. "What's the Creep family up to? Come on. You can make yourself useful." He told Blunk as they followed the group of bullies.

* * *

_The Silver Dragon_

"Thank you for the tea, Miss Lin." Jackie thanked as Yan Lin sat down with her own cup of tea, having just finished pouring one for Jackie.

"No problem. Anything for Hay Lin's 'Uncle Jackie'." Yan Lin joked. "But in all seriousness, it's the least I can do for you helping not only my granddaughter, but this new generation of Guardians. With someone like you as their teacher, I see a bright future ahead of them."

"I'll help however I can." Jackie said as he drank his tea. "But I should be grateful as well. Before we moved here, Jade didn't have many friends at school, so I'm glad she is starting to find some in Hay Lin and the others. Though her habit constantly getting into trouble doesn't appear to have changed."

Yan Lin chuckled slightly. "You know, that's actually a lot like what your Uncle Jin used to do with the girls and I back in the day. He was about as cocky as they came, much like Jade, but of course he was plenty good at kicking butt to, so he had no problem getting out of trouble."

Jackie smiled before it faded slightly. "While I am happy to know Uncle had such a fun time in his youth, I'm surprised that he never told me about this before, even during our battles against the Dark Hand and Shendu when magic came into play."

"I can't really say I'm surprised." Yan Lin said as she took out a photograph and showed it to Jackie. "This right here is a picture of the previous Guardians." Jackie looked at the photo as it depicted five young women and a young Chinese man with brown hair, baring a strong resemblance to Jackie himself, he could only assume it was his Uncle. There was also a Chinese woman in his arms, kissing him on the cheek, which was undoubtedly Yan Lin in her youth; but there were four other women he didn't recognize. There was a Caucasian with red-hair and blue eyes, a blonde with blue eyes, an African American woman with black hair and eyes, and finally a woman with long black hair and green eyes.

"As you can see, that is Jin when he was young and smokin; that little hottie in his arms is me." Yan Lin began to list the people in the picture. "The others are Cassidy, Halinor, Kadma, and… Nerissa." Though Jackie noticed some hesitance in speaking that last name, he choose to ignore it as Yan Lin continued. "We were all very good friends, even Jin got along well with the other girls, though he and Kadma butted heads quite frequently; they were like oil and vinegar those two." She laughed slightly.

"If you don't mind me asking, what happened to the other former Guardians?" Jackie asked.

"Halinor joined the Council of Kandrakar." Yan Lin began.

"Kandrakar? As in the Heart of Kandrakar?" Jackie voiced in surprise.

"Yes; Kandrakar is also the name of the realm that resides at the center of the universe." Yan Lin explained. "The Council oversees the veil and the balance that is to be maintained between all these worlds, while the Guardians are their 'police-force' in a sense. Halinor is among the Council now."

"Are the others in the Council as well?" Jackie asked.

"No." Yan Lin continued. "Kadma went to live in the realm of Zambala, even becoming its Queen to watch over the realm. We hadn't spoken since."

"What of Cassidy or Nerissa?"

This caused the former Air Guardian to look down. "They are… no longer with us."

Jackie's look became quite sympathetic once he heard that. "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Truly, I am."

Yan Lin smiled as she placed a hand on Jackie's, showing she was grateful for that. "After what happened then, no one was ever the same; even Jin changed. Before he was confident and cocky, feeling he can take on the whole world; but after that he became much more serious. The rest of us tried to stay together, but we eventually broke apart. I retired, Halinor and Kadma went off in their own directions that I told you about, and Jin went to train under the Chi Wizard, Fong. We kept in touch but didn't speak much after. I guess we each had our own ways of dealing with our loss."

Jackie was once more about to express his sympathy, but Yan Lin continued to speak.

"And that is another reason why I asked for you to help train this new generation of Guardians." Yan Lin explained. "They will face many powerful foes, not just Phobos, and you have much experience battling such adversaries. But more importantly, I am hoping that you will help in providing emotional support as well. This will be very stressful for them, and I feel that there is a possibility they may lose themselves to their magic if it overwhelms them; power is nothing if not intoxicating, I've seen myself what that can do to people. They will need help of someone who is humble and well-grounded, to keep them not only close to each other, but with their roots, so they don't forget who they are."

It was in that moment that Jackie understood why he was here with this new generation of Guardians. He wasn't just their teacher; he was their friend and protector. No doubt they will be facing dangerous adversaries, and there will likely be moments that will weigh heavy on them; but he will be there to share the load and make sure they don't lose themselves, whether to the call of power or in their stress and grief.

"Miss Lin, I swear I will do everything I can to help protect these girls." Jackie assured. "I will make sure they are not only strong, but safe. I will watch over them with all that I am."

Yan Lin smiled sincerely. "I know you will. You are a good and noble man, Jackie Chan."

Jackie smiled back, but his smile vanished as he heard his cell phone ring. He was quick to answer it. "Hello? Jade? What's going… Oh… what?! Alright, I'm on my way." He hung up and turned back to Yan Lin. "Cedric is here in Heatherfield; Jade, Will, and the others are going to face them."

"Go, help them however you can." Yan Lin told him.

"I will." Jackie nodded with a determined look on his face before running out the door. As Yan Lin was left alone, she glanced one more at the picture of herself and her former team as a stray tear fell down her face.

* * *

Jackie had met up with Will, Jade, Irma, Cornelia, Taranee, and Hay Lin at the park as they all sat down on a bench while Hay Lin showed them the map that her grandmother had provided earlier.

"What good is a map if it doesn't show anything?" Will asked.

"Grandma said it was activated by the crystal." Hay Lin replied.

Will took out the Heart of Kandrakar and shined it over the paper. Once she did, a perfect map of the city magically appeared on the paper with four X's glowing at four different areas; three were red and one was blue.

"Hey that's the alleyway behind the mall!" Irma pointed to one X.

"And that gross sewer one." Cornelia pointed to the second X

"And that's near the docks where we and the J-Team fought the Dark Hand!" Jade pointed to the last red X.

"The first three portals." Taranee voiced in realization.

"Uh oh, there's a fourth one." Will looked at the blue X on the map.

"Likely the one that Cedric used to cross over into our world." Jackie assumed. "And it appears to be very close."

The group turned around to see the building that was City Hall. With nothing needing to be said, Jackie led the six girls towards the building. They came towards the doors that were broken down, which made Taranee more than a bit nervous.

"Um, maybe we should call the police? Or better yet, Section 13?" The bespectacled girl suggested.

"For this kind of problem, we _are _the police." Will stated.

"As Uncle always says, 'magic must defeat magic.'" Jade said as well.

"I was afraid you'd say that." Taranee gulped, but Jackie put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Do not worry, if you're nervous, just stay close to me." Jackie assured.

"Thanks Jackie." Taranee said with a small smile, feeling somewhat better as the group walked into the building.

* * *

Meanwhile, Uriah and his gang snuck in through the building's backdoor, but Caleb and Blunk spotted them.

"Come on." Caleb told to Blunk. "I promised Cornelia that I wouldn't do anything to the Creep-brothers. But _you_ didn't."

Blunk hung his head down, not liking where Caleb was going with this.

* * *

"**Guardians Unite!"** Will said the magic words into the Heart of Kandrakar as she, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin underwent a dramatic and flashy transformation, assuming their persona as WITCH.

"Never gets old." Jade said with an excited smile as even Jackie had a proud smile on his face.

"Alright, who wants lizard on their pizza?" Irma challenged.

* * *

Meanwhile; on the second floor; Cedric and Wong both continued to search through the room that contained the birth records of all the people in Heatherfield. Finn, Ratso, and Chow were also there, but without knowing who exactly they were looking for, the Enforcers really couldn't provide any help, so they just hung back.

"So, uh… any luck?" Ratso asked, only for him and his friend to duck as Cedric threw a box of papers at them.

"A simple 'no' would have sufficed!" Chow scowled.

"These records are ancient! Hundreds of years old!" Wong grunted in frustration as he used his scepter to blast a stack of papers to vent. "We need more recent records."

Finn spotted some boxes behind the opened door. "Hey uh… maybe this is it?" He wondered as he took out some papers, only to be shoved aside by Cedric as the humanoid-shapeshifter glanced over them himself.

* * *

Back in the lobby; Cornelia used her Earth-powers on a potted plant to extend its roots towards a nearby elevator and pry open the door while Will used her super-strength to kick a stone-bench in-between the doors to keep it open as the Guardians flew in with Jackie and Jade following.

"Why don't we just _take_ the elevator?" Taranee asked.

Jade gave her titular scoff. "And let Lord Snake-boy know were here? This thing's about as loud as an alarm clock."

"Jade is right." Jackie agreed. "We know Cedric is here, but we don't know if he's here _alone. _We need to be careful." He jumped to grab onto the handles of the emergency hatch on the elevator's ceiling to open it. The five Guardians all flew up as Will carried Jackie and Irma carried Jade.

Once they made it to the second floor, Jackie took the lead as he spotted an open door. He hung back towards the wall and motioned his hand behind him, quietly telling the girls to stay back and keep quiet as he scouted the room. He peeked out the door to find there was no one inside.

"He's not here." He said to the girls, confident the enemy couldn't hear him as they all joined him inside.

"Geeze, looks worse than my room." Jade looked at the mess the enemy left behind. "What was he doing here anyway?"

Taranee looked down at a sheet of paper. "These are birth records."

* * *

Back in the lobby, Caleb and Blunk hid behind a pillar as they saw the trio of bullies, each of them wearing Scream masks, looking around for the girls to scare.

"Uh… maybe Blunk to pretty to scare boys."

"I'll risk it." Caleb brushed off before pushing Blunk out into the open.

The masked bullies turned around to see Blunk who tried to act terrifying as he burped and tried to roar, only to cough. Needless to say, Uriah and his gang were far from intimidated.

"Dude, is that like a big green monkey?" Clubber wondered aloud; but the three saw something behind Blunk that caused them to run away screaming in absolute terror.

"And don't come back!" Blunk told the bullies, only to look behind him to see the towering form of Cedric, causing Blunk to scream in terror as well.

* * *

"Why would a slimly lizard be looking through a bunch of old birth records?" Cornelia asked as the group skinned through the records that were tossed everywhere.

"The only thing missing is female birth records from about thirteen years ago." Taranee said; but the group was suddenly startled by an inhuman roar that echoed throughout the whole building.

"Looks like our guest is still in the building." Jade said as they all ran out.

* * *

Blunk backed away from Cedric only to back right into the feet of Daolon Wong, along with the three Enforcers.

"A Passling?! Here?!" Wong questioned.

"The hell is that supposed to be?" Finn asked. "Some kind of magic toad?"

"What are you doing on this side of the Veil, smuggler?" Cedric demanded the smaller creature.

"Retailer!" Blunk exclaimed.

They all heard a yell as Caleb tried to jump and attack them, but Wong used his scepter to ensnare Caleb with his dark magic and immobilize him, as well as Blunk.

"Who's the kid?" Chow asked.

Caleb's eyes widened at the sight of the Enforcers. "I remember you! You're those Dark Hand people!"

"Wait, wasn't this kid at the docs?" Ratso asked.

"This boy is the leader of the Rebellion in Meridian!" Wong stated.

"Caleb!"

Everyone turned back towards the open elevator to see the Guardians, Jackie, and Jade enter the lobby; but the heroes looked in surprise to see Finn, Ratso, and Chow with Wong and Cedric as well.

"The Dark Hand?!" Jackie, Will, Taranee, and Hay Lin, exclaimed in surprise.

"Chan!" The Enforcers all shouted in an equal amount of surprise.

"Guardians." Wong and Cedric both snarled at the girls.

"The three stooges are working for Phobos now?" Jade asked in confusion.

"Valmont must be on spring break or something." Irma assumed with a shrug.

"**Gan! Ren! Chui!" **Daolon Wong had summoned his trio of Dark Chi warriors by his side just as Jackie, Jade, and Will took combative stances while the other Guardians summoned their respective elemental powers.

"Time the Guardians and that meddlesome Jackie Chan, learn a lesson in humility!" Cedric exclaimed. "Attack!"

"What he said!" Finn stated as the battle begun.

Jackie immediately leapt at Cedric while Will and Jade found themselves surrounded by Finn, Ratso, and Chow. Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin flew at the Dark Chi warriors; shooting blasts of water, fire, rock, and air respectively at them; forcing them to scatter, and Wong to throw up a dark magic shield to protect himself, consequently losing his magical grip on Caleb and Blunk.

The Passling hid behind a curtain as he watched Caleb running to jump behind Cedric and wrap his arms around the snake-man's neck while Jackie leapt to deliver a kick to Cedric's face and knock him back. Cedric got back up and glared at Jackie and Caleb as they stood together before the snake-man roared and lunged at them.

Finn ran and threw a punch at Will, but she parried the punch, using Finn's own weight against him, and tripping him up on his feet to knock him onto the ground. Chow tried to come in with some punches and kicks himself, but Will blocked all of them before flying and flipping over Chow to grab him from behind by his shirt and throw him to the wall. Ratso ran towards her, but Jade had already swept her feet to trip Ratso, causing him to fall flat on his face.

"Wow, these guys aren't as tough as I'd thought they be." Will pointed out, given how easy it was to bring them down.

"Well duh, without the Talismans, these guys are a total cakewalk." Jade remarked.

However; the other Guardians didn't seem to be having such an easy time against Daolon Wong and his Dark Chi Warriors. Hay Lin used her airpower to blow a large rug towards them. Though Wong was able to escape in a puff of smoke, all three warriors were trapped and ensnared in the rug.

Before Hay Lin could even celebrate however, Wong appeared behind her and shot her with a blast of Dark Chi Magic. In direct response Hay Lin threw her hands out to blast a hail of water at Wong while Cornelia used her powers to crack the ground and send a hail of debris at Wong as well; but he used his own magic to create a large shield in front of him to block the attacks.

Taranee was about to come in with a fire-ball, but she had to duck at the last minute to avoid a large hammer thrown her way, which smashed into the wall. She looked in surprise to see the Dark Chi Warriors free of their predicament as Ren used his large shuriken to cut his way out of the rug while Chui's hammer returned to him. Gan leapt towards Taranee and lashed his staff at her, but Taranee fell back down to the ground to avoid it. Hay Lin however was quick to come to Taranee's aid as she blew a powerful gust of wind from her mouth to knock back all three warriors.

Cedric roared as he sent a punch towards Jackie, but he rolled out of the way to avoid it as the fist slammed onto the ground. Caleb came in with a kick as he swung on a drape, which only stunned Cedric, but left him open for Jackie to leap and jump off Cedric before delivering an airborne punch to his face and knock him onto the ground. The second Jackie landed however; he waved his hand as it stun quite a bit from that punch. However, Cedric was quick to get back up and was ready to attack both Jackie and Caleb again when he heard a whistle.

"Hey snake-boy!" Jade called to Cedric from the middle of the room. "Yo momma was so ugly she couldn't get a date with an anaconda!" The shapeshifter roared as he slithered his way towards the girl.

"Jade! What are you doing?!" Jackie shouted.

"About to make a snake-pancake!" Jade stated as Cedric was right over her. "Now!"

Will was already hovering at the chandelier that Jade had lured Cedric right under as she gave a horizontal karate chop, which was strong enough to cut through the chain and send the chandelier falling on top of Cedric just as Jade ran out of the way.

"Nice!" Will exclaimed as she flew back down to Jade and they shared a high-five.

"Wow, those two make a pretty good team." Caleb commented as Jackie went from being surprised to proud as he gave a nod, but the celebration came to an end as Cedric recovered quickly and knocked the fallen chandelier off him. He grabbed the surprised Will by her leg and smacked her into Jade before throwing her at Jackie and Caleb to knock them back.

Irma used her powers on a pipe that was exposed from the ground from Cornelia's previous attack to shoot a water-blast at Gan, but he leapt over the attack slammed his staff into Irma to knock her back just as Cornelia herself was blasted back by a shockwave of Chui's hammer that slammed onto the ground by her feet. Hay Lin tried to send a wind-disk attack at Ren, but his shuriken blocked and intercepted the attack, before it returned to him; however this seemed to be a distraction as Taranee tried to shoot at him from behind, only for her to be ensnared by a dark magic energy grip from Wong and his scepter who sent her flying into Hay Lin where they skidded across the floor near a downed Irma and Cornelia just as Jackie, Will, Jade, and Caleb, landed in the same area from Cedric's attack.

Blunk gave a scream as he hid behind the drapes while the villains loomed over the heroes.

"Novice Guardians." Wong sneered evilly. "Your crude elemental powers cannot defeat me."

"Enough bluster, Wong! Finish them." Cedric ordered.

"You do not order me, shapeshifter!" Wong shot at him before commanding his Dark Chi Warriors once more. "Destroy them!"

All the heroes looked in shock as the three Dark Chi Warriors leapt into the air, ready to bring their weapons down on them, only for the warriors to be hit by a green magic blast seemingly out of nowhere, much to everyone's confusion.

"_Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao." _Uncle cited his titular chant as his good Chi Magic kept the Dark Chi Warriors suspended in mid-air while Tohru stood by his teacher's side. "Tohru, now!"

Tohru pressed a button on the top of a triangular-prism-shaped artifact, causing it to open at the top. It hovered in the air above Tohru's hands before the Dark Chi Warriors were transformed into streams of dark blue smoke and pulled into the artifact like a vacuum before it closed, trapping them inside forever.

Jackie and Hay Lin smiled, while Will, Caleb, Cornelia, Taranee, Irma, and even Blunk from his hiding spot, all looked with dropped-jaw surprise.

"Go Uncle!" Jade exclaimed with a wide grin.

"My warriors… imprisoned?!" Wong exclaimed while Cedric himself looked more than a little surprised. "How did you locate the lost Urn of Wei Cheing?!" He questioned towards Uncle.

"I know a thing or two about antiques." Uncle boasted with a proud grin.

"We also know a thing or two about back-up." Tohru added. Before anyone could question what, he meant; multiple Section 13 transports all came to a halt outside the building as several agents, all dressed SWAT uniforms, came pouring in through the open front door, and several more crashed down from the ceiling, sliding down on ropes. Before the Wong or Cedric could even react; they were completely surrounded by at least two dozen Section 13 agents, all of whom had their guns trained on them as the evil duo had laser-targets pointed all over their bodies.

"One wrong move, and you're both swiss cheese." Captain Black stated as he walked into the room, standing alongside Uncle and Tohru.

"Captain Black!" Jackie exclaimed in surprise.

"Man, talk about a cavalry." Irma said with a grin as she and the other Guardians, Jade, even Caleb, had relieved smiles on their faces.

Daolong Wong and Cedric glared and growled at how quickly the tide was turned against them; however, the humanoid-snake-monster still held some papers close to his person. "We have what we came for. We shall meet again, Guardians, forces of Earth." Cedric hissed as Wong threw out a large plum of dark smoke with his scepter.

"Hey! Wait for us!" Finn shouted as he, Ratso, and Chow all ran and jumped into the smoke as well. All the agents moved in to try and stop them, only to find all of their enemies had completely vanished once the smoke subsided.

* * *

The Guardians, Chan-Clan, and Section 13 managed to locate the portal that the enemy no doubt already escaped into.

"And take this slimy portal with you." Will stated as she used the Heart of Kandrakar to close the portal as well as transform herself and her friends back to normal.

* * *

_Meridian – Phobos' Castle_

Cedric, Wong, and the Enforcers walked onto the balcony as a hawk landed on Phobos' robbed arm. "Well?" The Dark Prince looked expectantly back at his subordinates.

"We have the Earth-papers that will help us to locate your sister." Cedric told his prince.

"However, locating her will be much more difficult." Daolon Wong informed. "The Guardians have received aid from the forces of Earth, who will no doubt try to use their own resources to locate the child before we do."

Phobos sighed slightly. "I should have suspected as much. Though it is fortunate we have our own Earth-forces as well." He glanced towards the Enforcers.

"I wouldn't be so confident, my prince." Cedric said. "These three were all but useless against Chan and the Guardians!"

Phobos' look turned into a glare, which startled the trio. "Give us a break Phobos!" Finn stated. "We don't even have any magic powers!"

"Yeah, we're just three normal guys!" Ratso added.

"How do you expect us to fight super-powered magic girls?!" Chow stated.

"They may have a point, my prince." Wong seemed to be in agreement. "As they are now, they cannot hold their own against the Guardians, novices or no."

"So… we're free to go?" Ratso hopped.

Daolon Wong however snickered evilly as his eyes began to glow a bright blue and he cited the incantation for a powerful dark magic spell. _"Ganrenchui. Gan Ren Chui. GAN! REN! CHU!" _He shot a trio of dark magic bolts from his scepters that hit the three Enforcers dead on. They all screamed as they were lifted into the air and underwent a dreaded transformation as they were completely enveloped in dark blue smoke.

Their skin had turned dark orange as the same symbol that was on Wong's forehead formed on each of their foreheads. Their hair turned dark red and became much longer, save for Ratso who became bald; their ears became pointy, almost elf-like, as their eyes became onyx-black. Their clothes were all torn off and burnt black before they completely enveloped and re-arranged themselves around the trio before bright blue tattoos formed all over their arms and were engulfed in a final flash.

The transformation was complete as the Enforcers of the Dark Hand had fallen onto the ground but landed rather gracefully as they each looked at their newfound appearances. Finn had taken an appearance that resembled Ren, Ratso looked like Chui, and Chow looked like Gan as he put his sunglasses back on.

"You're orange!" Ratso pointed to Chow.

"You're bald!" Chow pointed back to Ratso in shock.

"Freaky…" Finn looked at all his transformed state.

"You are no longer mortal men, but powerful Dark Chi Warriors under my command." Wong told them. "So, the next time you face the Guardians, you will be ready for them."

Though this did mean they were still going to be serving Phobos, the Enforcers could indeed feel much stronger as they each summoned their respective weapons wielded by the former Dark Chi Warriors. Finn had the large wind-mill shuriken, Chow had the three-section staff, and Ratso wielded the massive hammer.

"Huh, I guess we could get used to this." Chow shrugged.

"Better than getting our butts kicked all the time." Finn seemed to accept his newfound power, albeit a bit reluctantly.

"Maybe this time, _we'll _be kicking butt." Ratso voiced.

Phobos looked in amusement at this as he glanced back out onto his balcony. Though the hunt for his sister would be more difficult than he expected, he had no intention of giving up. "Time to start planning a family reunion." He told himself with a sinister chuckle.

* * *

_Earth – City Hall_

Though the Guardians and Chan Clan were sure that Cedric and Wong already left, Captain Black had his agents search through City Hall just to be certain. One agent heard a bang on a nearby storage closet. He pulled out his pistol and pulled open the door but was surprised to find Uriah and his gang terrified and crying like babies.

"AAAH!" Clubber screamed.

"Don't eat us!" Uriah also screamed.

"Is the giant snake gone!?" Kurt screamed as well.

* * *

Meanwhile; Jackie, Caleb, and Tohru all helped Will, Irma, Jade, Cornelia, Hay Lin, and Taranee carry some pizza back to Irma's house for the party. Uncle walked with them, but he didn't carry any pizza.

"Birth certificates of girls at the age of thirteen?" Tohru asked, after being told what Cedric and Wong were doing at City Hall.

"That's all that was missing, yes." Jackie confirmed.

"Is Phobos looking for us?" Will wondered.

"Unlikely." Uncle shook his head. "He is undoubtedly looking for the true heir to Meridian."

"Well I don't see what good birth records are gonna do since the heir wasn't born here." Cornelia said.

"Phobos could use the list to narrow down the search; identify those that were born in Heatherfield to those who were not." Jackie assumed.

"Which would mean that Phobos has already got a head-start on us." Taranee said.

"Big deal." Jade blew it off. "They also got that stuff online, right? Just have Captain Black search the web."

"But without knowing what the heir looks like, we'd have no idea who to look for." Tohru said.

"Caleb, you got any ideas?" Will asked.

"No clue." The rebel leader said honestly. "She wasn't even named when she was rescued from her brother."

"We'll worry about that later." Hay Lin said, trying to cheer everyone up. "We got a party to get back to!"

Irma however didn't seem as enthusiastic. "My parents have been ruining my party for an hour. I hope you guys like party, because there won't be anybody in my house left to eat it."

Hay Lin was the first to make it back as she saw something that made her look in elated surprise. "Well, you're right, they're not _in _your house."

A huge smile formed on Irma's face to see the party going on, maybe even better than before, as her mother led all the kids outside on a hacha-cha-cha dance. "cha-cha-cha-cha! Woo! Come on, limbo is next! Cha-cha-cha!"

Irma soon got an idea. "Hey, we brought pizza! And a real-life sumo wrestler!" She announced, gesturing to Tohru, who was quite surprised.

"Um… I really don't think." He was suddenly surrounded by many of the party guests.

"Whoa, he's a sumo?!"

"Look at this guy! He's huge!"

"Hey, who want's the arm-wrestle with the sumo!?"

Before Tohru could protest, he was dragged into the party. "Come on Uncle Jackie, it's time to party!" Hay Lin grabbed Jackie's hand excitedly, as well as Uncle's. "You to Uncle! The night is still young!"

"Okay… slow down…" Jackie laughed slightly as he was pulled into the party.

"Aiya! Uncle is too old to do the cha-cha!" Uncle comically exclaimed. Taranee, Cornelia, and even Caleb all joined in the party as well as Jade walked up to Will.

"Come on, you gotta admit Will, this looks really fun." Jade told her.

"Yeah, party wasn't so bad." The birthday girl admitted with a small smile.

"Oh, I meant to give you this earlier by the way." Jade pulled out a box wrapped in wrapping paper. "Happy Birthday! From me to you!"

"You got me a present?" Will asked in surprise as she took the box.

"No, I _made_ you a present." Jade told her. "Well, open it up!"

Will raised an eyebrow as she tore off the wrapping paper and gave a surprised gasp at what she saw. It was a large framed picture of herself, Jade, Jackie, Cornelia, Hay Lin, Taranee, Irma, Uncle, Tohru, Uncle, Yan Lin, even Caleb. All of whom were together and smiling.

"I… how… how'd you even take this? I don't remember this picture." Will voiced, as she would have remembered a group-picture like that.

"No one took it, I made it." Jade explained. "I took several pictures of everyone and used some chi-magic from Uncle's books to mix it all together and get everyone to smile. And yes, Uncle _does_ really smile, rarely, but he does."

"You used magic to make this?!" Will exclaimed. "Probably would have been easier with photoshop or something."

"Maybe, but I wanted it to be special." Jade said honestly. "Like I said before, I didn't really have any friends expect for Jackie, Tohru, and Uncle. But since I met you and the other girls, I couldn't help but be super excited about that. I finally got friends who live in the same world of magic and adventure as I do! You have no idea how happy that makes me, and I wanted to show you just how much I appreciate that, just for being my friend. So, what do you think?"

Will looked at the large photograph for a moment. Jade actually used magic to make this for her. It was true that she had a rough time before moving to Heatherfield and she honestly didn't expect to make any friends right away with what happened to her old friends. But, after meeting these people, and experiencing everything that's happened so far, both ordinary and extraordinary, she couldn't help feel about as happy as Jade right now, maybe even more so. These people were indeed her friends, real friends who would always be there for her, through good times and the bad. Before Will knew it, her eyes got all misty and tears actually formed in them.

"Whoa… are you… crying?" Jade voiced in surprise.

Will sniffed as she wiped the tears of joy off her face from her sleeve. "I'm okay. Jade… this is the best present anyone's ever given me." She suddenly wrapped her arms around Jade in the form of a hug. "Thank you so much!"

Jade was a bit surprised by this emotional gesture, but she smiled back and returned the hug to her friend. "No problem. Happy birthday Pink Perky Poopy Pumpkin!"

Will pulled out of the hug with a small laugh as she looked at Jade with a playful yet warning glare. "You know what would be another great gift? For you to _never _call me that again."

"No promises." Jade winked. "Come on, party time! I wanna see Tohru own these wimps at arm-wrestling!"

Will laughed and shook her head, she was about to walk forward, but accidentally ran into someone and fell to the ground. "Ow!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, you okay?"

She looked up to see a teenage boy with long black hair looking to her in concern and offering a hand up. Will stared at him for a second before accepting his hand.

"Uh yeah, don't worry about it…. " She said, trying to hide her blush as this boy was quite handsome. "Name's Will by the way."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Matt." The boy greeted as he shook her hand. "So, you wanna get into the party?"

"Eh… yeah. Let's go party!" Will stated as she and Matt joined everyone else. Will really couldn't help but smile at all of this, all things considered, this really was a great a birthday. Her best, ever.

**Done.**

**So, what did you think? Phobos is getting closer to finding his sister, but Section 13 is also looking to so it's not going to be easy for either of them. Uncle has managed to defeat Daolon Wong's Dark Chi Warriors, but now Finn, Ratso, and Chow have been transformed into Dark Chi Warriors themselves so that they can better compete with the Guardians. **

**I also decided to expand upon the original episode. First was Jackie's conversation with Yan Lin and getting a brief glimpse at the Guardians before. We all know what happened in the WITCH cannon series, but I plan to expand more on that as I include JCA elements in the future; but don't expect a full story till Season 2, so we got a long way to go. However, what's really important to take away from that conversation, was the other reason why Yan Lin wants Jackie to train the girls; not just to better prepare them for future battles, but to help them maintain their selves and don't lose themselves in their power like a certain former Guardian we all know. And Jackie, being the good-natured soul that he is, is the perfect man for the job.**

**Also, I made up my own reason for Will originally not liking parties. It wasn't explained in the cannon series, so I made one up myself using elements from the comics; because it was stated that in the comics Will's previous friends before moving to Heatherfield stabbed her in the back and humiliated her (at least according to the wikia, but I didn't read the comics, so I don't know the specifics of what happened, so I just made up something). However, Jade was able to reach Will as the two have common ground of not having many friends in the past, as well as being betrayed by people the trusted (Will with her old friends; Jade with Seymour/Hsi Wu). Jade, while she can be a bit cocky and even disrespectful at times, is also a very good person and has already begun to form a close friendship with Will, having made her a present out of magic for her; so you can expect the two to become quite close as the story continues. **

**Anyway, thanks again for your patience. And if you don't see an update before Christmas time, Happy Holidays! **


	7. A Shady Service

**Hi everyone, Happy New Year! My first update of 2020! One of my resolutions for this year is to have some of my updates up more frequently (even with my other stories), and I hope I am able to deliver. So, without further delay, let us get started**

**A Shady Service**

Phobos stood on a balcony, overlooking his kingdom alongside Cedric and Daolon Wong. "The list you both have found of those born in the Earth-town should help to refine our search."

"Yes, but with Chan and the Guardians now allied with Earth's own forces, it may become more difficult to locate your sister, my prince." Daolon Wong said.

"Perhaps, but it may prove just as difficult for them as well." Phobos explained. "Only a select few would know of my sister's identity, not even she knows. Her ignorance, once serving as her protection, shall serve as my opportunity. However, we must also exercise the utmost of caution, as we have learned not to underestimate our enemies."

"What would you have us do then, Prince Phobos?" Cedric asked.

"I have a mission for you Cedric, one in which you will be need to pass as human." Phobos told the shapeshifter, causing him to smile sinisterly.

"Perhaps I may provide us with some assistance as well, my price." Wong proposed. "I have been working on a little… project that I'm sure you will find most pleasing." The Dark Chi-Wizard said, causing Phobos to look at him with a serious, yet intrigued, expression.

* * *

_Earth – Sheffield Institute_

All the students attending the school, including Jade, Irma, Will, Cornelia, Taranee, and Hay-Lin, had all been gathered in the auditorium as Principle Knickerbocker had an important announcement to give.

"Students, our newest history teacher… Professor Dean Collins!" She presented the newest member of the school's staff, a middle-aged man with short brown hair and a mustache who was greeted by applause from the students as he walked on-stage.

"Thank you, and good morning." He greeted the students. "I've been told that Sheffield prides itself on sharpening young minds…" He began, apparently not noticing many of the students paying attention, even Uriah was chewing the gum at the bottom of his shoe. "And developing your sense of community, that's why this year, we're going to be holding Community Service Day a month early!"

That got the attention of all the students as they all looked in borderline horror.

"A month early!?" Cornelia exclaimed.

"A month early!?" Irma dreaded.

"A month early!?" Even Uriah looked pale in fear as he chewed his gum.

The only ones not too horrified were Will and Jade as they looked around in confusion before looking at each other while Jade just shrugged.

However, Collins seemed oblivious to their horrified reactions. "I was impressed to hear you love community service so much you rush to school _early _on sign-up day!"

* * *

The announcement ended as all the students left the auditorium, none of which were happy about Community Service Day being moved up a month. Among them were the group of young heroes, alongside Elyon.

"_Of course,_ we come early!" Elyon complained. "Oh man, I hate Community Service Day! I'm gonna stand up in the parking lot all night with a pen in my hand."

Taranee groaned in agreement. "Maybe I'll sleep in my locker."

"Uh, hello!? Info to the pair of new girls!" Jade exclaimed, referring to herself and Will. "What the heck is Community Service Day?"

Jade and Will were led by the other girls to a billboard in the hallway. "Okay, tomorrow morning there's going to be a list on this board. Four hundred jobs for four hundred kids." Irma explained.

"Our of those, maybe ten won't totally suck." Cornelia added.

"And the last kids to sign-up get the most gagerific ones!" Hay Lin exclaimed.

"It can't be _that _bad." Will said.

"Oh no? Try monkey-bar scraper at the zoo!" Cornelia stated, remembering her last job.

"Okay _you _had it easy!" Irma said to the blonde. "_I _was a sewer ladder painter!"

Jade scoffed. "You guys think that's bad; try clipping a dragon's toe-nails and _then_ we'll talk about gross!"

"Wait… a dragon?!" Elyon questioned in surprise.

Jade's eyes widened, remembering Elyon wasn't aware of all the magic-stuff she and the other girls were doing. "Oh… I mean a _komodo _dragon!" Jade quickly said. "Did volunteer-work at a zoo one time."

"Oh." Elyon seemed to buy it. "Komodo dragons, those are pretty cool."

"His feet certainly weren't." Jade shivered.

"But we get the idea… get here early." Will said.

* * *

Later that evening, Will had returned home to have some dinner with her mother, who seemed to be looking at a vase with flowers on the table. Will was confused by that, but even more confused as she looked at what was in her soup.

"Uh mom, did you get a phone call while you were making the soup?"

"How'd you know?" Mrs. Vandom asked. Will merely showed a phone that actually ended up _in _the soup with her spoon, causing her mother to look in surprise. "Honey… uh… what would you think if I… started dating?"

Will took a sip of her soup before her face cringed; it wasn't exactly the best she had. "Well, if you meet a nice guy, I wouldn't feed him any home-cooked meals right away."

* * *

_Meridian – Phobos' Throne Room._

As the dark prince sat in his throne, Cedric and Wong both bowed to him as several guards lined the large and dimly lit chamber.

"I've adopted a human's identity in their town." Cedric reported to Phobos.

"Mmm, the search for the girl will go faster now." Phobos sneered. "Now, what is it you wanted to show me, Wong?"

Daolon Wong snapped his fingers as a pair of guards brought in his black cauldron filled with a dark blue liquid. "Something I'm sure you'll find most pleasing, my prince. You see, while your guards and Lurdens are quite strong, they do not appear strong enough to crush the Rebellion and are even more useless against Chan and the Guardians." Wong's commented resulted in a glare from all the guards present. "However, I believe these new minions will serve us much better."

Wong approached his cauldron and began to cite a dark chant, causing the liquid inside to stir until it began to glow, and the light shinned to reveal a symbol representing a Japanese demon appeared. _"Awaken from shadow!" _Wong voiced in his chant. _"Serve your new masters!"_

All the guards looked in shock as all the shadows in the throne room began to move on their own and condense towards the floor, even Cedric looked in minor surprise while Phobos raised an eyebrow in interest as Daolon Wong sneered evilly.

"Behold Prince Phobos…" Wong presented. "A literal army of the shadows! A force of pure and unrelenting darkness!" The shadows began to rise from the floor and take solid forms. Soon, at least a dozen new beings stood in the center of the throne room; all of which bore the appearances of masked ninjas with black robes, dark blue skin underneath their attire, and emotionless red eyes. "The Shadowkhan!"

Phobos looked quite intrigued at these new dark figures while Cedric merely looked questionable. "What is this, wizard?" He hissed in annoyance.

"This, shapeshifter, is the means of our new army." Wong explained. "Unlike your guards, these are not mortal creatures; but physical manifestations of pure darkness. They bare no emotion, thought, or will of their own. They live to serve their master and will do anything and everything asked of them, without consciences or mercy."

"Hmmm, perhaps a demonstration is in order." Phobos mused. "Guards, attack these 'Shadowkhan'." He ordered.

All the guards in the throne room hesitated for a moment, but they all drew their weapons, namely swords or axes as they charged towards the group of Shadowkhan in the center of the throne room. However, as they did, all the Shadowkhan simultaneously jumped into the air, much to the surprise of the guards as they all looked up in shock, just as the Shadowkhan all fell and slammed their feet into the guards. The Shadowkhan then went on the offensive with several punches, chops, and kicks. They moved faster than the guards ever could or even understood what they were doing. In seconds, all the guards lay unconscious on the ground as the Shadowkhan stood firm and bowed their heads towards Wong, Cedric and Phobos.

The dark prince chuckled. "Most impressive. Excellent work Wong. This should indeed cause the Rebellion quite a bit of trouble."

"I am pleased that you are pleased, my prince." Wong bowed his head with an evil smile.

However, Cedric gave a subtle glare in the wizard's direction before. "Yes, against mere guards, these Shadowkhan are impressive, but I wonder how they will fare against Chan and the Guardians."

"Then allow me to properly test them against our enemies." Wong requested to Phobos. "I would also like to test my new Dark Chi warriors as well."

"Very well, go to the Earth realm Wong, and be sure to grant me some interesting results." Phobos instructed.

"As you wish." Wong bowed before swinging his scepter to vanish in a puff of blue smoke while the Shadowkhan merely 'melted' away in the shadows to follow the Dark Chi-Wizard.

* * *

_Earth – Vandom residence. _

Will heard her doorbell ring and answered it but was surprised to see her new history teacher at the door.

"Good evening Will." Collins greeted in a friendly manner.

"Professor Collins? Whatever you're here to tell my mom, I'd appreciate at least fifteen minutes to think of an excuse!" Will quickly said, thinking she was in trouble.

This proved to be false as Collins actually laughed slightly. "Oh, it's nothing like that." He turned his attention to Will's mother as she walked to greet him. "Good evening Susan."

"Dean, hi." She greeted back.

"Susan? Dean?" Will voiced in surprise.

"Your mom joined the PTA, but she missed the last two meetings." Collins explained.

"So, I asked Dean to bring over the material." Mrs. Vandom also explained as she let Collins inside. "Why don't we talk in here."

Will looked questionably as her mother and history teacher sat down on the same couch together and looked over the material and even laughed together.

* * *

_Uncle's Rare Finds_

Jackie, Uncle, Tohru, and Caleb all stood in the shop as they began to talk about their next move; which was locating the missing heir to Meridian before Phobos does.

"We know Phobos has recently acquired birth records of those born in Heatherfield, which will help narrow down his search for the heir." Jackie summed up.

"Can't your Section 13 also do the same thing?" Caleb asked Jackie.

"Captain Black is looking into it; but even with Phobos' physical description, it is still the equivalent of looking for a needle in a haystack." Jackie replied.

"Well what about one of those locator-spells?" Caleb turned to Uncle. "You're a wizard can't you…OW!" The young rebel rubbed his forehead where Uncle had dope-slapped him

"Uncle cannot use locator spell to find heir, because Uncle needs a piece of the heir's essence. A piece of skin, a drop of blood, a stand of hair, anything! Does Rebel-Boy have essence of the heir? No? Then we cannot use locator spell!" Uncle stated.

"But relatives share DNA, and seeing how Phobos is the heir's brother, if we were to acquire something from him, shouldn't we be able to use a locator spell then, sensei?" Tohru asked.

"So, what, we ask Phobos to give a piece of his hair? Yeah, I don't think so." Caleb shook his head.

"But Phobos also has a wizard with him as well. If Daolon Wong is also a Chi-Wizard like Uncle, then he could use the same method to locate the heir himself." Jackie said.

"If that were the case, then Phobos would already have the heir with him." Uncle replied. "Which means, that the heir must be protected by enchantments to prevent Forces of Darkness from locating her that even Daolon Wong cannot break."

Caleb sighed. "Why does it feel like every time we get one step forward, we're also taking two steps backwards?"

Before anyone else could say anything, Jade had entered the shop. "Hi guys. No time to talk, getting ready for bed." She ran upstairs towards the apartment above the shop.

"Jade? But it's only seven thirty. I've never seen you actually go to bed _early_." Jackie told his niece as she was at the top of the stairs.

"I don't have a choice." Jade explained. "It's Community Service Day tomorrow, so I gotta wake up early to be the first the sign-up."

Jackie was surprised, but a proud smile formed on his face. "Well, I'm very impressed that you seem to be very pro-active in taking part in community service, Jade."

"Don't get the wrong idea. I just wanna get to school first so I don't get stuck with a job that's over nine-thousand on the gross-meter." Jade quickly said.

"But don't you regularly sneak off to fight criminals and evil-doers?" Caleb questioned. "Why do you seem so upset about something as trivial as community service."

Jade scoffed. "I'd rather fight the likes of Valmont, Phobos, or even Shendu then scrub toilets." She responded before walking into the apartment upstairs.

"Teachers make students clean toilets?" Uncle questioned in minor surprise. "School has changed since Uncle was a boy."

* * *

_Hale Residence_

Cornelia was already in her room, setting the alarm clock as she was preparing to go to sleep. "Let's say… 6 am." She set the alarm just as her younger sister walked in with a board game.

"Mom says you gotta play Wobbly-Wobbly-Walrus with me." Lilian gloated, but Cornelia wasn't in the mood.

"Beat it shrimp. I'm going to bed early." Cornelia glared. "And if you do anything to ruin my sleep, I will personally drop-kick you into the wolf-pit at the zoo!"

"You're mean!" Lilian shouted.

"I'm not mean, _wolves _are mean. Go!" Cornelia turned off the light and went to sleep just as Lilian slammed the door.

* * *

_Two Hours later_

Cornelia was deep asleep; she didn't even notice her door creaking open slightly. Lilian tip-toed into her older sister's room towards her desk and alarm clock. The younger girl smirked evilly as she turned off Cornelia's alarm clock and left the room.

* * *

_The Next Day – Sheffield Institute_

Nearly every student in the school shoved each other aside as they tried to sign up for whatever least-gross jobs were left on the Community Service Board. However, Jade, Irma, and Taranee hung back as they already signed up for the jobs they wanted. Hay Lin had done so as well as she walked over.

"Hey guys, what did you get?" Hay Lin asked.

"Sealing envelopes at city hall." Taranee answered as she and Irma high-fived. "Easy-street!"

"Will and I are painting over graffiti." Jade revealed. "At least we could look at the cool artwork as we work."

"Elyon, Alchemy, and I are cleaning up at the park." Hay Lin said. "Martin gut dumpster scrubber."

"Sucks to be him." Jade smirked, though Elyon walked up with a concerned look on her face.

"Have any of you seen Cornelia?"

* * *

_Hale Residence _

Cornelia gave a yawn as she woke up, but once she spotted the time on her clock, which was 8:34 am, she gave a loud scream as she ran downstairs, not taking the time to get dressed, to get her shoes and leave as soon as possible, much to the confusion of her mother and satisfaction of her younger sister.

"Mom, can I have Cornelia's pancakes?" Lilian asked. "I don't think she'll have time to eat them."

"If I were you, I would get into the Federal Sister Protection Program!" Cornelia glared at her sister before her pants briefly fell down, which she was quick to pull back up before leaving.

Lilian helped herself to her older sister's pancakes. "Gee, I wonder what's left on the Community Service list."

* * *

"Children! Children!" A day-care representative tried to get the attention of all the misbehaving children in the day-care, one of which was Lilian. "This is Cornelia!" She presented the reluctant blonde, but none of them seemed to listen as they continued to play, make messes, or draw on the windows and floor. "They have behavior issues." She gave a warning whisper to Cornelia. She clapped her hands to finally get the attention of the children. "Cornelia's going to read to you! What book have you chosen Cornelia?"

"The Little Sister Whom from Today-on Wished She Had Never Been Born." Cornelia grumbled as she caught the stink-eye Lilian gave her.

"Lovely, good luck." The representative said before leaving as a kid threw a rubber duck at Cornelia's forehead.

* * *

_City Hall_

Irma and Taranee had spent the last few hours licking and sealing multiple envelopes. Though this was definitely an improvement over the jobs they had the previous year, it wasn't the best. They still had dozens of envelops left to seal and their tongues were already numb from licking so many.

"Why did we sign up for this again?" Taranee questioned, her voice gummy from all the licking.

"I licked for two hours this morning." Irma voiced, her own voice just as gummy as her friend's. "We had to _steam _my lips open."

"On the bright side, we ate so much glue, we don't need to buy lunch." Taranee said as they resumed licking just as Professor Collins entered the room.

"Hi girls."

"Hello Professor Collins." They greeted simultaneously, but he noticed the gummy tone in their voice.

"You are using the special sponge-tongues, aren't you?"

"Sponge-tongues?" Irma and Taranee voiced in surprise. Collins walked over to a desk to show them said sponge-tongues while offering them a sympathetic smile, causing them to look in disbelief.

* * *

_The Park_

Hay Lin, Elyon, and Alchemy each used sticks and rods to pick up garbage all over the ground. Though Alchemy wasn't particularly pleased.

"Seriously there are trash cans like everywhere! Why do people just throw them on the ground?!" Alchemy exclaimed.

"Because they're all idiots." Elyon groaned. "I swear, people have no respect for the environment."

"Could be worse." Hay Lin said as she picked up some trash. "I feel so sorry for Cornelia right now." She said, knowing the job that her blonde friend had got.

* * *

_Day Care Center_

Cornelia didn't even get a chance to read to the children as they had already tied her to a chair and even put stickers over her mouth in the form of a gag, which Lilian took joy in as all the other kids continued to play and cause chaos while Lilian continued to stick stickers on her face.

"Look! She's outer space!" She put a star on Cornelia's cheek as she simply rolled her eyes.

"_This is still better than last year."_

* * *

Meanwhile; Will and Jade were at an abandoned train station and were painting over the graffiti on the walls.

"Well this isn't the worst job we could have gotten." Jade voiced. "Still beats cleaning Shendu's feet." All she got in response was a slight grumble from Will. "What's gotten you so crabby-grouchy?"

"You would be to if your mom was making goo-goo eyes at your history teacher." Will grumbled.

"Seriously?" Jade stated in surprise. "Wow, Collins is an idiot."

"Tell me about it." Will said, slightly relieved that one of her friends was also disapproving.

"I mean, have you _seen _your mom, that guy is _way _out of his league." Jade cracked, causing Will's mood to grow even more grumpy as she painted harder. Jade's attention was caught by some odd writing on the wall. "Whoa, who painted ancient spells on here?"

Will looked in surprise as she saw what Jade was pointing at, five symbols written on the wall. Though she couldn't read the symbols, she suddenly saw the symbols glow, causing her to feel dizzy.

"Uh Will, you okay?" Jade asked, only to look in shock as Will fainted and fell to the ground. "Will!"

* * *

_Uncle's Rare Finds_

Will groaned as she began to regain consciousness, having found herself on a futon that Uncle had rolled out in the back of his shop. She faintly heard Jade explaining to Jackie, Uncle, Tohru, and Caleb what happened.

"She saw this crazy writing and then fainted."

"Uh… guys…?" Everyone turned to her as she began to sit up. "Where am I?"

"Sensei's shop." Tohru answered as he handed Will a glass of water. "Here."

"Thanks." Will immediately drank from the glass.

"Will, are you alright?" Jackie asked with concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Will shook her head to shake-off the cobwebs in her brain.

"What did this writing look like?" Uncle asked Jade. In response, Jade presented a piece of paper with the symbols she and Will saw written on it that she wrote herself. "Hmm, these are letters not from Earth."

Jackie, Caleb, and Tohru looked at the writing themselves. "I've never seen these symbols before. At least not in Uncle's spell books." Tohru said.

"It doesn't look like anything from any parchments or hieroglyphics I've studied before… Ow!" Jackie felt a dope-slap on his forehead, courtesey of Uncle, who did the same with Tohru.

"Ow!"

"Of course, neither have you have seen this writing before!" Uncle exclaimed. "Uncle literally just said symbols were not of Earth! Pay attention!"

"I've seen this writing before." Caleb said, getting everyone's attention. "In Phobos' castle, but I can't read it."

The shop bell rang as Taranee and Irma entered before walking into the backroom. "We came as soon as we heard." Taranee stated, her voice still as gummy as before.

"Is Will alright?" Irma asked.

"I'm fine." The red head assured as she stood up. "What's wrong with your voices?"

"We've been licking envelopes." Taranee answered.

"Don't they have sponge tongues for that?" Jade asked, causing both Taranee and Irma to roll their eyes.

Caleb was first to get back to the subject at hand. "I know who can translate this." He said, referring to the symbols. "But we have to visit the Infinite City."

"Where is that?" Jackie asked.

"In Meridian." Caleb answered.

Jackie sighed. "Somehow, I knew you were going to say that."

* * *

Will and Jade had led Jackie, Caleb, Irma, and Taranee to the train station, and met up with Cornelia and Hay Lin along the way. Uncle and Tohru stayed behind to keep an eye out for the Forces of Darkness while also watching over the shop.

"It was right here though!" Jade pointed to the spot where symbols were written, which was now completely blank.

"Maybe somebody erased it? Cover their tracks?" Hay Lin wondered.

"Perhaps." Jackie began to think.

Taranee noticed Cornelia trying to wipe the paint and stickers off her face. "What's that on your cheek?"

"The Big Dipper. Don't ask."

"There must be a portal close by." Will said as she took out the map and the Heart of Kandrakar. The crystal glowed as the map began to show their current location along with an x near their current spot. "Right there."

"In the tunnel." Jackie looked towards a nearby train tunnel. With nothing else needing to be said, the group of eight began to walk towards the tunnel. Once inside, Will used the Heart of Kandrakar as she spoke her titular magic words.

"**Guardians Unite!"**

In another flashy sequence; Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin had transformed into their persona as WITCH. Despite their powers being fully activated, the Guardians and their friends remained on high alert. No telling what was waiting for them inside this darkened tunnel as Taranee created a fireball in her hand to provide some light.

"Portal dead ahead!" Jade stated as the turned a corner to see the open portal. The group ran or flew toward the swirling blue portal before stopping right in front of it.

Irma cautiously walked towards it and stuck her arm inside. "Whoa! Do you know what David Copperfield would pay for this?!" She said jokingly.

Jackie's eyes widened as he saw something on the other side. "Irma, get back! Something is coming!" Irma flew backwards in alarm as she saw the shape in the portal. "Everyone be ready!" Jackie took a combative stance along with Caleb and Will. Irma, Cornelia, Taranee, and Hay Lin hovered in the air and readied their respective elemental attacks as Jade picked up a random pole and held it like a baseball bat.

The heroes were all ready for a fight, however, there wasn't a fight to come as Blunk stumbled out of the portal with a sack in his hands; causing everyone to look in surprise.

"Blunk?!" Jade exclaimed. "What are you doing here?!"

"Doing business." Blunk presented his sack. "Dragon nostrils? Trade for girly wings? Good deal, yes?"

Everyone lowered their guard but looked questionably at the Passling. "Dragon nostrils?" Cornelia voiced.

"I am afraid to ask." Jackie voiced.

Blunk opened the sack as smoke began to immediately fly out. "Make good hat, once it stops smoking."

Everyone looked in disgust and blew away the smoke from the faces as they all walked through the portal and into the realm on the other side of the veil.

* * *

_Meridian _

The Guardians, Caleb, Jackie, and Jade all emerged from a portal in an alleyway in a rundown town, fortunately far away from Phobos' castle and any patrolling guards.

Jade looked at the rod she still had in her hands. "Huh, guess I won't be needing this anymore." She tossed it back into the portal, unaware that it would hit Blunk in the back of the head on the other side of the veil.

Caleb had led the group to what appeared to be the town's dump. "Looks like we know where Phobos dumps his trash." Irma joked.

"Caleb where are you leading us?" Jackie asked the young rebel as he came towards a large upside-down barrel.

"Don't worry, we're here." Caleb answered as he opened the side, revealed to be a door to a hidden passageway with stone stairs leading deep underground.

Jade gave an impressive whistle. "Secret underground base. Cool."

Jackie, Jade, and the Guardians followed Caleb down the stairs where they came before what appeared to be a massive underground tunnel lined with pillars in every direction.

"Whoa." Will voiced in surprise. "This place is huge!"

"Where are we?" Irma asked.

"I don't know but listen to that echo!" Hay Lin exclaimed excitedly. "Echo!" She shouted as she heard her voice echo in every direction.

"It be one hell of a place to hold a rock concert." Jade said.

"This is the Infinite City." Caleb answered as he continued to lead the group. "Nobody knows who built it, and in four thousand years, no one's found an end to it any direction."

"Hence the name." Jackie replied.

"Yeah, this makes a good place to hide from Phobos while we make our next move." Caleb said as he came towards a certain pillar and placed his hand on a carving. Once he did, a floor began to open to reveal yet another staircase, leading deeper underground.

"So, a secret lair _inside _a secret lair?" Jade voiced in surprise. "Like one of those Russian bobble-head dolls."

"I think you mean Matryoshka dolls, Jade." Taranee corrected.

"Right those."

"More stairs?" Cornelia complained as they walked down the staircase. "Don't you like have some kind of stone escalator?"

Caleb rolled his eyes as he continued to lead the group. "Ugh girls."

In just a few minutes, the group had come to the bottom of the stairs which led to a large waterfall with a figure hiding behind it. Caleb immediately kneeled in the being's presence. "Mage, we need your help."

The being known as the Mage spoke in a raspy female voice behind the waterfall. "Ah… you are the Guardians of the Veil."

"Yes sir… I mean… yes ma'am!" Will said, trying to sound respectful to this important figure.

"And… you are the warrior known as Jackie Chan…" The Mage observed, causing Jackie himself to look in surprise.

"You know my name?"

The Mage stepped out from the waterfall. She was a tall being, wearing a purple hooded robe with grey skin and tattoos on her face and green eyes. "One does not defeat the Ultimate Evil without having his name recognized. I am truly honored to be in your presence." She gave a humble bow.

"Oh well thank you…" Jackie gave a humble smile and an awkward hand-wave. "But I am just a simple archeologist."

"Who knows how to kick evil butt!" Jade exclaimed excitedly.

"Yeah, you could Chuck Norris a run for his money." Irma agreed in an equally excited tone.

"Guys, don't we have something to do here?" Taranee reminded.

"Oh right." Jade walked up to the mage and presented the paper with the symbols she written on it.

The Mage recognized it. "Ah, the writing of the Beasts."

"Well, what does it say?" Jade asked.

The Mage merely lifted her hand and the writing on the paper began to glow and reshape itself till it took the form of a sentence written in perfect English, which Jade began to read aloud.

"'You are still undetected, begin your search for the girl.'"

"A beast is in your town in human form." The Mage revealed as she kneeled down to speak to the group on a personal level. "It will try to get close to you Guardians."

"A beast in human form?" Jackie thought. "You mean a Shapeshifter? Like Cedric?"

"Indeed." The Mage confirmed.

Will's eyes widened as she suddenly thought of Professor Collins. "How can you tell a Shapeshifter from a human?"

"Touch a beast with the Heart of Kandrakar and it shows its true form." The Mage answered before standing up and backing into the waterfall once more, leaving a group of heroes very concerned.

* * *

_Heatherfield – Local Diner_

"You're serious?! Professor Collins?!" Irma exclaimed to Will.

"He's like, too boring to be evil." Cornelia voiced.

"Who is Professor Collins?" Jackie asked.

"Our school's new history teacher." Taranee answered.

"We know that Phobos is looking for a girl our age." Will began but was interrupted.

"He's looking for his sister, the true heir to the Meridian throne." Caleb reminded. "So why would he send one of his minions to an Earth-school?"

"Will, are you sure this isn't because you're upset about Collins getting the hots about your mom?" Jade asked.

"No of course not!" Will immediately said.

"But neither of you are the heir to Meridian." Jackie said. "So, what reason would Phobos' servant approach your mother?"

"Well, okay maybe Phobos is looking for his sister but think about it for a minute." Will began. "Who's his biggest obstacle? Us! So, he sends a shapeshifter to get in close and take us out one-by-one!"

All the girls looked in surprise. "Yeah, that actually does make sense." Jade seemed to get it.

"And how else do you get close to Earth girls? By getting a job as a teacher!" Will continued.

Taranee seemed to catch on. "That way you can scout out your targets one-at-a-time!"

"But, if he's from Meridian…" Caleb tried to voice his own reasoning, but the girls weren't listening to him.

"Okay, my mom is attractive in a funky-old-person kind of way." Will began. "but unless he's actually an evil shapeshifter trying to get to me, why else would Collins get to her?"

"If he's from another world, why would be teaching _Earth_ history?" Jackie questioned. "How would he know enough to teach it?" However, like Caleb, Jackie was being ignored as well.

"And it would explain why he made Community Service Day earlier!" Cornelia stated.

"To separate us and watch us one at a time!" Irma also stated.

"We should follow him!" Hay Lin stood up.

"How would we do that without being seen?" Taranee asked.

"Easy." Jade reached into her pockets to pull out two Talismans. "With the Snake Talisman, invisibility! And the Dragon Talisman for extra firepower just in case."

"Jade! Those are supposed to be locked away in Section 13!" Jackie exclaimed. "How did you even get them!?"

"I'm only borrowing them; I'll give them back once were done." Jade quickly said.

"Girls please, let me suggest another plan I…" Caleb wasn't even surprised to see all six girls had ran out of the diner to go along with their plan to follow Collins.

Jackie sighed as well. "Caleb, can you please follow them and make sure they don't do anything rash? I will speak with Captain Black and see if we can look into Collins identity and see if he's really from Earth or not."

"Using resources from Earth! Now that's a good plan! Why didn't they think of it?" Caleb questioned. "Yeah, I'll follow them." He walked out of the diner to catch up with the girls as Jackie began to make a phone call to Captain Black.

However, as Caleb tried to catch up with the girls, he and everyone else were completely unaware that there was someone watching _them _behind a darkened alleyway, having listened to their whole conversation.

"Hmm, they seem aware of Cedric's presence in their town, but they are looking at the wrong mortal." Daolon Wong mused in the shadows amusingly as he glanced to the glowing red eyes in the shadows around him. "Follow them, but do not attack until I command." He instructed as he walked backwards, and he vanished with the darkness completely.

* * *

Professor Collins had left a hardware store and began walking down the street, unaware that Jade was watching him and completely invisible thanks to the Snake Talisman. While still invisible, Jade ran across the street toward the park where the other girls and Caleb were hiding by a bench. Jade turned visible once she got to the others.

"What did he buy?" Will asked.

"Glue." Jade answered.

"Glue for what?" Caleb questioned.

"Glue to stick on his realistic-rubber-human face!" Cornelia exclaimed.

"Cedric is a shapeshifter; he doesn't need a rubber-face for that." Caleb said, rolling his eyes.

"Maybe he needs the glue to stick us to tables, chairs, or poles and keep us still to torture us!" Hay Lin voiced.

* * *

Jade had used the Snake Talisman to turn invisible again and follow Collins to the pet-store, where he walked outside, completely unaware he was being watched. Jade regrouped with everyone else around the corner and turned visible again.

"This time he bought crickets. Live crickets. Two pounds of them." Jade told everyone.

"That's way too much for fishing." Taranee said.

"But not too much to _eat_." Irma said.

"EEEW!" All the other girls were grossed out by the thought of that.

"Snakes don't eat crickets. Do they?" Jade asked Taranee

"Depends on the type of snake." Taranee explained. "Some do, others eat animals whole. Depends on the size of the snake."

"Or maybe he's got a pet lizard." Caleb suggested rationally.

"Yeah right. Who has a pet lizard?" Cornelia questioned.

"Well, I don't wanna judge somebody before all the evidence is in…" Will began. "But it's obvious Collins is really Cedric who eats bugs for breakfast and tortures girls with glue as his personal hobby!"

All the other girls seemed to be in agreement, while Caleb simply smacked his hand against his forehead.

"We've gotta go to Will's house right now!" Hay Lin exclaimed.

* * *

Night had all but fallen as the group was hiding in the bushes outside the apartment complex Will and her mom were living in, and completely invisible; with Jade holding onto the Snake Talisman and everyone else touching Jade so they would be invisible to.

"We don't even know he's coming here. Why would he even be here anyway?" Caleb questioned.

"To kidnap my mom and hold her hostage to get to me! Why else?!" Will exclaimed.

"Yeah, it's a total cliché super villain thing to do." Jade agreed.

A car had pulled up and parked along the curve. Collins stepped outside with a file of papers in his hands as he walked toward the entrance way.

"There he is." Hay Lin whispered.

"Okay, I'll hit him with the Dragon Talisman to knock him out." Jade whispered. "Will, you use the Heart to reveal his real and ugly snake-face; then we haul his scaly butt to jail!"

"Good plan." Irma nodded.

Collins didn't appear to notice any of this as he was right at the front door. Before he could even open the door however, he was suddenly blasted from behind by a blast of fire from the Dragon Talisman and smacked hard onto the wall before falling backwards into unconsciousness.

"Get him!" Will exclaimed as they all turned visible and ran towards his unconscious body. Irma and Cornelia grabbed his arms while Taranee, Hay Lin, and Jade grabbed his legs. Will took out the Heart of Kandrakar and touched the jewel to his body. "Sorry Cedric, but you're busted!" His body began to glow pink briefly, but he remained in the same form, much to everyone's surprise, save for Caleb.

Hay Lin began to pull on his face. "Wow this is really glued on there."

Taranee picked up the papers he was carrying. "Hey uh, can you guys think of any reason Phobos would join the PTA?"

Will winced. "Oooh, uh no, but my mom might have… and so would have… Professor Collins."

"Who_ isn't_ an evil shapeshifter."

All six girls looked in surprise to see Jackie and Captain Black walk onto the scene.

"Jackie!? Captain Black?!" Irma exclaimed.

"What are you guys doing here?" Cornelia questioned.

"Professor Dean Collins." Captain Black began to list. "Age thirty-five, born in Brooklyn, graduated from Colombia University with a teaching degree in history. No criminal records whatsoever."

"You looked up his information…?" Jade winced, having a good idea where this was going.

"Yes, something that we could have easily done in Section 13 without following and attacking him." Jackie said in a disapproving tone, crossing his arms. Caleb had the same sort of expression.

"So, he's… not evil." Will looked quite ashamed as did all the other girls.

However, Hay Lin looked in minor surprise. "Uh… if he's not evil, why are there shadows moving around him?"

"What?" Jackie voiced in shock as he and everyone else looked surprise to see all the shadows around the area actually move on their own. Though Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, Hay Lin, and Caleb looked in confusion; Jackie, Captain Black, and Jade gulped as they knew what this meant.

"Uh oh." Jade gulped.

The shadows all stopped moving and became solid to reveal the shadow-spirit ninja-like warriors.

"Shadowkhan!" Jackie exclaimed just as the shadow-warriors threw a hail of shurikens at the group.

They all gave surprised yelps as they leapt towards the black van that Captain Black drove to get here for cover just as the shurikens hit the vehicle.

"Who the hell invited freaking ninjas?!" Cornelia practically screamed.

"Shadowkhan! Very bad news!" Jade exclaimed. "Will, we're gonna need you guys to Guardian up!"

"Way ahead of you! **Guardians Unite!" **

Before the Shadowkhan could even advance towards the vehicle a bright pink light shined behind it, forcing the ninja-minions to back away. Once the light subsided; the five Guardians flew over the truck to face the Shadowkhan as Caleb, Jackie, Jade, and Captain Black run around.

"Who or what are these things?" Caleb questioned.

"They're called Shadowkhan, basically magic ninjas." Captain Black summed up.

"But this should be impossible. Only Shendu can summon the Shadowkhan." Jackie stated.

"That may have been the case before…." A new voice spoke up; which belonged to a certain Dark Chi Wizard that appeared in a cloud of dark blue smoke in the middle of the gathering of Shadowkhan. "…But Shendu isn't the only one with knowledge of the Dark Arts."

"Oh great, it's the old guy again." Irma voiced sarcastically.

**"Gan! Ren! Chui!" **Daolon Wong had summoned the three Enforcers, each one in their new forms as Dark Chi Warriors.

"Whoa, that was freaky." Finn voiced as he and his friends felt weird to be summoned like that, still not used to their newfound forms.

"The Dark Hand Enforcers are here to?!" Taranee exclaimed.

"And it looks like they got a make-over in the Dark Chi department." Hay Lin gulped.

"Attack!" Wong commanded as his Shadowkhan and Dark Chi Warrior minions all leapt toward the heroes who retreated toward the street in order to avoid drawing the attention of those in the apartment building.

Despite the Guardians flying and the running of the other heroes; the Shadowkhan and Dark Chi Enforcers all leapt to land in front of their enemies before charging forward and attacking.

Jackie was put on the defensive end from Chow's punches and kicks. Jackie back-flipped onto a parked car and jumped to avoid Chow slamming both his fists onto the car, denting and breaking the hood on top. Chow looked at his hands in surprise, not expecting that sort of strength.

"I am so buffed!" He exclaimed with a grin before summoning his staff and charging at Jackie again.

"Bad day." Jackie uttered as he tried to put some distance between him and Chow.

Caleb tried to block and parry the attacks from several Shadowkhan surrounding him, but with so many enemies and their own natural speed, Caleb was stuck on defense. He tried to punch the front most Shadowkhan, only for the enemy to catch the punch and deliver a palm strike to Caleb's chest and a kick to his face to knock him down onto the ground.

"Caleb!" Cornelia was about to fly and help him, but a Shadowkhan had leapt into the air and grabbed her feet to pull her down and swing her to the ground. She had a rough landing, but as several more Shadowkhan attempted to attack her, she quickly raised her hand to break apart the street and halt their advance. Some even tripped and fell onto sharp and jagged pieces of concrete, causing them to vanish into puffs of black smoke.

Taranee found herself surrounded by half a dozen Shadowkhan herself. One even cracked its knuckles and its neck, causing her to look even more nervous.

"Um… you wouldn't hit a girl with glasses… would you?" She hopped, only to end up ducking to avoid a punch before taking flight to avoid the attacks from the other. "Guess you would." Taranee voiced before creating several fireballs in her hands to throw at the Shadowkhan. Though a few of the fireballs hit and exploded, destroying a few Shadowkhan, most of them were able to swiftly move out of the way before they began to throw several shuriken at her. "Whoa!" she flew to avoid as many as possible as the Shadowkhan leapt after her.

Irma landed by a fire-hydrant and used her powers to blast water out of the outlet, causing the cap to shoot out and hit one Shadowkhan, destroying that one. Irma tried to direct the water to hit the others, but they all seemed much to fast as they leapt to avoid it; but as they leapt to attack her, Irma spread the water around her to take the form of a semi-solid wall with several tentacles to try and knock them back.

"Heads up!" Irma looked in surprise to see a large bladed-weapon heading towards her that easily slice through her water-defense. The weapon returned to Finn as he leapt to lash out his blades against Irma, forcing her to dodge and take to the skies.

"Hey, this is a nice change of pace, isn't it?" Finn voiced with a smile. "Not so fun being on the losing side, isn't it kid?" He gloated to Irma.

"No, it isn't." Irma gulped as Finn and several Shadowkhan began to surround her, despite being airborne.

Hay Lin shot her hands out to create a tornado and send it towards a group of Shadowkhan coming her way. A few were hit, but several rolled out of the way. Hay Lin didn't get a chance to attack further however as Ratso came flying in with his hammer and smashed it into the ground, causing it to explode and sending Hay Lin flying and landing smack into a parked car. She groaned as she tried to pull herself up, but only looked in fear as Ratso and even more Shadowkhan approached her.

"Sorry kid, nothing personal." Ratso said with a hint of regret as he tried to swing his hammer down on her, but Hay Lin took to the skies to avoid the strike.

Captain Black tried to pull out his pistol and shoot the Shadowkhan. Though he shot and destroyed one, another batted his gun out of the way before delivering a kick to knock him back as five more began to surround him.

"Captain Black! Heads up!" Jade tossed the Dragon Talisman his way. He was able to catch it and instinctively shot it out to blast a wave of fire that destroyed all the Shadowkhan surrounding him. He looked at the Talisman in his hands before shooting a look towards Jade.

"We're gonna have a serious talk about this later, young lady." Captain Black said before taking the Dragon Talisman and running back into the fight just as Jade took out the Snake Talisman before turning invisible.

Will tried to defend herself with what martial arts Jackie has taught her, but all it did was back her into a literal corner by an alleyway; where a few more Shadowkhan emerged from the shadows to grab her from behind.

"Let me go!" Will shouted, even with her own super strength; at least ten Shadowkhan in total were keeping firm grips on her, and their combined weight was enough to keep her from flying. Will stopped her struggling and looked in fright to see Daolon Wong approaching her.

"Ah, the keeper of the Heart." The Dark Chi Wizard mused with a sinister grin. "It must be quite the heavy burden for one especially young. Allow me to relieve you of it." He reached out for the Heart of Kandrakar, despite Will's struggles, but Wong suddenly felt a sharp pain on his left foot, causing him to yell in pain before an invisible force gave an uppercut to his chin to knock him down.

Will and even the Shadowkhan looked in surprise, even as the same invisible force punch one ninja down, followed by another. This gave Will enough room to spread her wings and fly towards the sky where she used her strength to throw her arms out and knock all the Shadowkhan off her and send them falling to the ground where they vanished into smoke.

"Jade?" Will had a feeling it was her friend, which proved to be true as she turned visible, curtesy of the Snake Talisman.

"What gave me away?" Jade smirked.

Will would have replied, but quickly flew down to grab Jade and pull her out of the way to avoid a blast of Dark Chi magic from an angry Daolon Wong.

Despite everyone's best efforts; Will, Jade, Jackie, Taranee, Cornelia, Captain Black, Irma, Hay Lin, and Caleb were forced to come together as they were surrounded my multiple Shadowkhan; all three Dark Chi Enforcers, and even Wong.

"This looks bad." Irma voiced.

"Ya think?" Cornelia responded sarcastically.

"Foolish children and mortals." Wong sneered. "I am the most malevolent of Dark Chi masters! Three powerful chi warriors and an entire legion of shadow minions are under my command! You are children and powerless mortal who cannot even begin to comprehend the forces you are dealing with! And now I shall…"

Wong's monologue was interrupted as a car suddenly came driving down the street right towards them. Will grabbed Jade and took flight as Irma did the same for Jackie, Taranee for Captain Black, and Cornelia for Caleb, they and Hay Lin flew into the sky to avoid the car that rammed into and destroyed multiple Shadowkhan while the Dark Chi Enforcers yelled but leapt out of the way as Wong disappeared in dark blue smoke just as the car came to a halt. The heroes looked in stunned surprise and even more so as Tohru stepped out of the driver's seat with Uncle at the passenger seat.

"Aiya! Are you trying to jostle Uncle! I am too old for joyriding!" The old man protested

"Sorry sensei." Tohru apologized.

"Uncle! Tohru!" Multiple voices called out to them as the heroes set down near the duo.

Daolon Wong reappeared as his Dark Chi warriors landed near him, the Dark Chi wizard growled at the sight of the old man. "The Chi Wizard novice."

Uncle spotted the Enforcers in their new appearances. "Something is different about those three."

Caleb's eyes widened as he remembered something. "You trapped Wong's old minions before, can't you do it again… Ow!"

"There is only one Urn of Wei Cheing and it is occupied!" Uncle exclaimed to Caleb after dope-slapping him. Uncle's look became one of surprise as several more Shadowkhan appeared around Wong and his Dark Chi Enforcers. "Aiya! Daolon Wong has Shadowkhan minions!"

"Really?! We hadn't noticed!" Cornelia exclaimed in sarcasm.

"Do not just stand there, divide and conquer!" Uncle exclaimed to everyone present. "I shall deal with Daolon Wong. Jackie, you deal with Dark Chi Warriors; Guardians deal with Shadowkhan!"

Not really seeing any other options, Will shrugged and went with the Uncle's plan. "Well, you heard the man, get them!" She exclaimed as they all charged against the enemy forces.

Uncle stood face-to-face with Daolon Wong; the two wizards glared as Uncle drew his blow-fist to shoot a beam of green Chi-magic while Wong used his scepter to cast a bolt of Dark Chi-magic to intercept Uncle's attack. Both chi-blasts met, and the two wizards were locked in a beam-struggle as they each cited their respective chants.

Jackie faced Finn alone as he dodged and swerved under Finn's swipes with his bladed weapon as Tohru pulled out a parking meter from the ground and used it as a weapon to block and parry Chow's staff.

Meanwhile; Captain Black and Caleb were up against Ratso. Black shot out the Dragon Talisman to shoot a blast of fire, but Ratso swung his hammer to block the attack before leaping into the air to bring the hammer down on both of them, only for Black and Caleb to roll out of the way and avoid the devastating smash as the hammer hit the ground.

The Guardians hovered in the air to face the Shadowkhan. "Okay, anyone got any ideas how to destroy evil magic ninjas?" Cornelia asked.

Will tried to come up an idea, remembering how the Guardians were supposed to work together and even some fun conversations with Jade about them combining their powers. One idea Jade had actually given Will an idea.

"Hay Lin, make a tornado! A big one! Suck em all up!" Will ordered. Hay Lin did as instructed and flew around the whole group of Shadowkhan, she flew at a rate so fast that when she combined her own power over air, it quickly created a large tornado that suck up all the Shadowkhan in the area.

"Taranee, Cornelia, Irma, shoot everything you got into the vortex! Light the whole thing up!" Will stated as her other three friends shot blasts of fire, water, and earth respectively into the tornado. Soon it became a large vortex engulfed with flames, water, and large chunks of rock and earth that mixed in with all the Shadowkhan before all the shadow-minions were hit by either a solid object or a burst of flame or boiling water. Hay Lin then used her powers to lift the vortex high into the air before it exploded in a brilliant flash of light.

"Woo!" Hay Lin cheered as all the other Guardians smile. "Nothing on Fourth of July could top that!"

"Let's just hope we didn't wake up the whole neighborhood with that." Taranee voiced.

Meanwhile; Tohru continued to swing and block with his parking meter against Chow's staff before his weapon converted into a three-section staff, which he spun like a nunchuck to smack into Tohru's hands and knock the parking meter out of them before smacking the weapon into Tohru's face to send him skidding across the ground.

"Heh, guess you're not the strong guy anymore, eh Tohru?" Chow mocked before an invisible force kicked him where the sun doesn't shine; causing Chow to squeal as he held his crotch and fell to the ground in pain.

Jade turned visible as she stood gloatingly in front of Chow. "Dark Chi warrior or not, all guys got the same weakness."

Chow then looked in fear as Tohru marched towards him, delivering a single, yet powerful, uppercut to send him flying and smashing into the wall, causing him to vanish in a puff of blue smoke.

"Thank you Jade." Tohru nodded.

"No problem Big T." Jade replied as they shared a high-five.

Caleb ran and grabbed Ratso from behind to wrap his arms around his neck, forcing him to drop his hammer. "Hey, get off me!" Ratso tried to struggle, but this left him open for Captain Black to blast him with the Dragon Talisman, scoring a direct hit just as Caleb jumped off as Ratso exploded in a flash of fire mixed with dark blue smoke.

"You got some moves kid; you'd make a pretty good agent in my organization." Captain Black smiled as he offered Caleb a hand up, which he accepted.

"Thanks, and you'd be a really good rebel in Meridian." Caleb repaid the complement.

Jackie backed towards a wall just as Finn threw his bladed weapon, but Jackie ended up running up the wall to avoid the attack just as it imbedded itself into the wall, and once he was high enough, he jumped off the wall and landed behind Finn and delivered a kick to his back, sending Finn crashing into his own weapon and vanishing with it in a puff of smoke.

Meanwhile; Uncle and Wong were still locked in their duel as neither seemed to have the advantage over the other. That is until Uncle took out a dried lizard and fired it alongside his blowfish to add more to his own attack, which began to push back against Wong's. Once Uncle's power had pushed far enough to hit Wong's scepter, the Dark Chi Wizard was sent flying and skidding across the street. He groaned as he tried to pull himself up, only to look in frightened surprise as he found himself surrounded by the glaring Will, Jackie, Irma, Jade, Tohru, Hay Lin, Taranee, Caleb, Cornelia, and Captain Black; even Tohru cracked his knuckles for emphasis.

Daolon Wong growled, realizing he lost this fight. "This is not over!" He waved his scepter to envelop himself in dark blue smoke before he vanished completely.

"And don't you come back!" Irma exclaimed to him, despite him being likely long gone.

"Man, that was one heck of a fight!" Jade stated.

"One that could have been avoided had you all not jumped to conclusions." Jackie said in a disapproving tone, causing Jade and the five Guardians to lower their heads slightly.

"Okay yeah, so Collins isn't Cedric… Ow!" Will felt her forehead where Uncle just slapped her.

"How can you think history teacher was evil shapeshifter?!" Uncle question. "Teacher too boring to be evil!"

"That's what I said!" Cornelia agreed.

"Don't be a suck up." Irma lightly scolded.

Will rubbed her forehead. "Yeah, I get it. I was wrong and I messed up. I should have thought this through without letting my feelings get in the way. I'm… I'm sorry."

Jackie sighed as he put a hand on Will's shoulder. "A lesson learned the hard way is still a lesson learned nonetheless."

"So, speaking of which, what are we gonna do about Collins?" Irma asked. "He is still knocked out, right?"

The group made their way back to the apartment complex where Collins was still out cold. Captain Black felt along his wrist and his head. "He'll be fine. A small bump, but no concussion or any other major injuries."

"I'm just glad he didn't see us." Hay Lin voiced.

"We'll take him back to his apartment while he's still out." Captain Black said. "And no one is the wiser."

"What about this PTA stuff?" Taranee picked up his file folder.

"Just put that in his desk, anything he might remember, he'll think he dreamed it." Cornelia dismissed with the wave of her hand.

It didn't take much effort for the group to carry Collins back to his apparent in Captain Black's van. Thanks to his research, the group knew his address and got him back to his residence with no trouble at all. Though they did find out that he had a pet lizard, causing Caleb to point out how right he was about the crickets, much to the girls' dismay. But they soon left, and Collins didn't wake up till the next morning.

* * *

_The Next Day_

Collins sat at his desk just as all his students walked into the classroom. He opened his drawer to find the PTA papers he previously packed were in there. He sighed in relief, but had an upset and tired look on his face, something Elyon noticed as she walked in.

"Are you okay Professor Collins?" She asked.

"Last night, I had a weird dream of fairies fighting ninjas." Collins replied with a tired tone-of-voice.

"Ah don't worry, I get that dream all the time." Jade said as she walked in. "Price to pay for watching too many action movies."

Collins seemed to buy it. "I really need to cut back on those late movie nights." He said to himself as everyone sat down with Jade sitting next to Will.

"So, we're good?" She whispered to the dark-haired girl.

"We're good." Jade whispered back, causing Will to sigh in both relief and exhaustion.

"Yeah, last night was a disaster. First, we know Cedric is somewhere in our town, now Wong's got some magic ninjas?"

"Yeah, the Shadowkhan are really bad news." Jade seemed to agree. "But don't' worry, I'm sure we'll get them."

"I wish I had your confidence."

* * *

_Day Care Center_

"I'm back!" Cornelia sang as she walked into the room where all the little kids where waiting. "And today, I have a special surprise for you! When you kids are older, you'll learn about something called community service." Irma and Taranee suddenly entered the room, each one pulling in a wheel barrel filled to the brim with envelopes. "But you are going to start right now! As you, and my darling sister, lick these forty-eight-thousand and seven-hundred and fifty envelopes."

Lilian's jaw dropped as she saw not only the smirks on Irma and Taranee's faces, but also the vengeful and satisfied smile on Cornelia's face. "And no, we don't have any sponge-tongues."

* * *

_Vandom Center_

Will and Jade were having dinner at Will's apartment as Mrs. Vandom cleared her own place. "So, mom, you were never interested in Mr. Collins?"

"Please, he's so unreliable." Mrs. Vandom scoffed. "He was supposed to drop off some papers last night but he never showed."

"You know, I don't really mind you dating." Will said as Jade tasted some soup, only for her to wince as it wasn't the best she head.

"Might I suggest going _out _to eat." Jade offered.

"Who has time?" Mrs. Vandom put on her jacket and prepared to head out. "I've got an emergency block meeting. Seems a bunch of guys in black are setting off fireworks in the street." Right as she left, Jade took a sigh of relief.

"Well, let's just be glad that's all they thought it was." Jade voided.

"Yeah but we still got a big problem." Will said. "If Collins wasn't Cedric, who _is_?"

* * *

Meanwhile, in a bookstore off the corner of a street, the humanoid serpent known as Cedric transformed into a humanoid form resembling a tall man with long blonde hair in a ponytail, a white button-up shirt and blue jeans with glasses. Before he could get to work, he felt a familiar presence behind him as he smirked amusingly.

"It would seem Wong, that your precious Shadowkhan haven't lived up to their expectations." Cedric mused.

Daolon Wong stepped out of the shadows. "Oh, to the contrary; they were more than a match for Chan and the Guardians; were not for the Chi-Wizard, they would have destroyed our enemies. That being said…" Wong smirked at the humanoid shapeshifter. "Our prince has allowed me to continue using them in future battles."

Cedric's smile faded as he gave a subtle glare in Wong's direction. "Have you come here to gloat then, wizard?"

"No, ironically enough, I am here to warn you." Daolon Wong said. "The Guardians and their allies are aware of your presence in their city. Though they aren't aware of your human identity, yet."

"Your warning is duly noted, but I assure you, I am more than capable of keeping up appearances. Now if there is nothing else, kindly take your leave. I do have a store to run." Cedric advised. Wong returned a subtle glare of his own before vanishing in his titular smoke, leaving Cedric alone in the bookstore just as he hung up a sign that said 'open'.

**Done. **

**So yeah; not only has Cedric begun his search for the missing heir to Meridian, but Daolon Wong has harnessed the power of the Shadowkhan for Phobos, which should make things much more difficult for the Jackie and WITCH. And it would seem that Finn, Ratso, and Chow are also more than a match for the young Guardians now that they are Dark Chi warriors themselves. **

**On another note, we have also met the Mage (but of course, we all know who that **_**really **_**is, but don't expect her to take on any villainous roles till Season 2).**

**Anyway, I hope you like this chapter as more will soon follow. See you soon and Happy New Year! **


	8. The Labyrinth

**Hi everyone. Thanks again for waiting. So, things are looking pretty bad for the heroes; not only has Cedric infiltrated Earth, but Phobos now has the Shadowkhan at his command. How will Jackie and the young Guardians prevail? Let's find out as we enter the next stage of this story. Thanks for your patience and support. **

**The Labyrinth **

The bookstore that served as the outpost for the disguised Cedric was currently closed, allowing the humanoid shapeshifter to enter the backroom and speak with his master in private. He approached a crystal ball and took a handful of magic sand from a chest to sprinkle it over the artifact; he backed away as an eerie green smoke filled the crystal ball and began to glow. Cedric kneeled as a bright light shinned out of the crystal ball to reveal a magical projection of the dark prince he served.

"Lord Cedric, I am becoming impatient for good news." Phobos told him.

"I have found an inversion point between Meridian and this Earth bookstore." Cedric informed. "So far, it doesn't appear that the Earth-forces are aware of my presence here, so this store will provide the perfect cover for searching for the girl."

"Once my sister is identified, we must slowly and carefully bring her into our confidence and then right into our trap." Phobos stated as he clenched his fist.

* * *

_Sheffield Institute _

"I think you'll find that you appreciate the time that you spent this term studying um… eh…" The teacher stuttered as he wiped the chalkboard with his tie; not noticing Irma making a cartoonish drawing about the teacher and discreetly showing it to Hay Lin who giggled slightly.

"The origins of myth?" Taranee finished for the teacher.

"Yes! Thank you." The teacher wiped his hands to get the chalk-dust off before reaching into his bag to pull out the graded essays. "Now, your midterm essays…" The wind from the open window blew some of the papers out of his hands. "For goodness sake." He muttered as most of the kids laughed at his expense. He was quick to pick up the papers and begin handing them out. "Some of you performed better than I'd expected, while others failed to perform at all."

Irma and Hay Lin both looked nervously at each other, thinking they didn't do so well. "I lost consciousness somewhere around Zeus' third wife." She whispered to her friend. However, when she got her graded essay back, she could only look in surprise. "Are you sure this is _mine_?" She asked her teacher. "It's my terrible handwriting…" The teacher nodded. "I got a B!?" She exclaimed with a wide grin as the teacher moved on. "That means I can get a D on the next one and still pass! Yes! Yes! Yes!"

Hay Lin got her essay back and also received a B, much to her excitement. "No way! Me to!" She and Irma exchanged a high-five.

"Taranee…" The teacher looked to her with a disappointed expression. "See me after class." The bespectacled girl could only look in confusion.

* * *

_The Silver Dragon_

"Uh… I don't know." One customer wasn't sure what to pick for lunch. "What do you recommend?" He asked the waiter.

"Personally, I'd recommend the lamian. We have a special this week for it." Tohru offered.

"Oh, then I'll take that please, thank you."

Tohru wrote the order down before moving to the next table where a couple appears to have finished with their meal. "May I take that off your hands?" He asked politely.

"Yes please, it was delicious thank you." The woman said with a smile.

"Here's a tip." The man gave Tohru some cash.

"Thank you very much." Tohru accepted the tip as he carried the plates away.

"I must say Tohru, you may be the best slave we've had at the Silver Dragon." Yan Lin teased. "You're such a sweet boy."

"Thank you. My mother always taught me to mind my manners." Tohru smiled. "I just feel a bit bad for Caleb who has to deal with Sensei…"

Yan Lin winched a bit. "Yes but, I feel that those two will get along just fine."

* * *

_Uncle's Rare Finds_

"Aiya! What is Rebel Boy thinking?!" Uncle exclaimed as he threw some powder over his cauldron to stop the fire from brewing out of it.

"I was thinking about finding a way to make some magic-light-weapon to fight those Shadowkhan-creatures." Caleb stated.

"Shadowkhan not vulnerable to light!" Uncle exclaimed. "We are not fighting vampires!"

"Well, excuse me for not being an expert on Earth-magic." Caleb voiced sarcastically. "In fact, I'd like to see you spend most of your life, working yourself to the bone, fighting a tyrant and his army of soldiers!" The young rebel leader pressed his head against Uncle.

"And Uncle like to see _you _battling demon sorcerers with world-destroying powers!" Uncle pressed his head back against Caleb. "Does Rebel Boy wish to see home realm free from Forces of Darkness? Yes? Then do what Uncle tells you!"

* * *

_Sheffield Institute _

Taranee met with her teacher once class was over, and it seemed the teacher wasn't pleased with her for some odd reason.

"I'm very disappointed that you failed to turn in an essay."

"That I… what?!" Taranee questioned.

"Well if you couldn't finish in time, you should have asked for… eh… you know… one of those things… You ask for when you can't finish" He stuttered.

"But I turned it in a day _early_!" Taranee stated. "It was on Theseus and the Minotaur…!"

The teacher snapped his finger, remembering the previous word he was looking for. "An extension!"

"It's on my computer!" Taranee told him. "I can email it to you the second I get home!"

"A deadline is a deadline, miss." The teacher told her. "I'm afraid you get an F, on this paper." He said as he left the classroom, with Taranee looking more shocked than ever. She _never _got an F before, and she knew she turned in the paper.

* * *

_Section 13_

After school ended; all six girls met up with Jackie at Section 13 and went to the dojo built into the base for some martial arts training. Jackie wore a dark blue kung-fu suit while each of the girls wore something similar. Will had a white karate suit with a red-belt; Jade had a black karate robe with an orange belt; Irma had a green sleeveless shirt with blue sweatpants; Cornelia had a white karate shirt with black pants and a green belt; Hay Lin and a light blue tai-chi outfit that her grandmother used to wear; and Taranee had a green karate outfit with an orange belt.

Will, Irma, Jade, Cornelia, and Hay Lin each had a martial arts stance as they surrounded Jackie who took a stance of his own. He motioned with his hand for them to bring it on.

Jade was the first to attack with a flying kick, which Jackie ducked under to avoid. Irma tried to come in with a punch, but Jackie caught her fist and used her own momentum to flip Irma over toward Jade and knock them both down. Cornelia tried to kick him but Jackie blocked it with his arm to throw the kick back, causing Cornelia to lose her balance and leave her open for Jackie to sweep his feet and knock her down. Hay Lin threw a few punches from behind Jackie, he was able to dodge the first before ducking under the second and grabbing Hay Lin by her arm and flipping her over his shoulder.

Will was next as she tried to punch Jackie as well, which he was able to catch, but when he tried to sweep his legs, she stuck out her left leg to intercept his, something that caught Jackie by surprise and appeared to leave him open for Will to deliver a chop to his side, but Jackie blocked it with his other hand and twirled his whole body to break free of Will's close grip and knock her off-balance.

Meanwhile; Taranee didn't appeared to be focused as she was muttering to herself. "Maybe he left in his own desk… maybe at home…" Taranee was taken out of her thoughts as Will was sent flying toward her and they both hit the ground.

"Way to back me up Taranee…" Will muttered sarcastically as she tried to pull herself up.

"Sorry." Taranee winced, but was offered a hand up by Jackie, which she took.

"Is something on your mind, Taranee?" Jackie asked.

She sighed. "Yeah… my teacher lost my essay. I put a lot of hard work into that thing and he failed me because he lost it."

"Taranee… we all grieve for your loss…" Cornelia said in a fake sincere tone as the other girls picked themselves up. "But the world's been invaded by monsters! Focus!"

"I agree." Jackie told her. "I'm sorry for what happened to your essay, Taranee. But there is a time and place for that; and now is not the time."

The girl rubbed the back of her head. "Yeah… sorry."

"Cedric is hiding somewhere in Heatherfield." Will said. "But without knowing what he looks like, we have no idea where to find him."

"Yeah if that Mage-lady Caleb told us about is so all-knowing, you would have thought she'd at least told us what Snake-Boy looks like in human-form." Jade agreed.

"Didn't she say though to reveal a beast in human form is touch it with the Heart of Kandrakar?" Hay Lin asked.

"Well I can't go around touching every single person in the city with a crystal." Will pointed out.

"How come Captain Black hadn't picked him up on satellite surveillance or something?" Irma asked.

"Because I don't know what he looks like." Captain Black said as he entered the room. "Shouldn't your rebel-friend from Meridian have an idea?"

Cornelia sighed. "I wish, but Caleb said he only ever saw Cedric as a snake."

"Wow Cornelia, your boyfriend is really useless." Jade jabbed with a smirk.

"Hey, he's not my boyfriend! And he's not useless!" Cornelia shot at Jade.

"Well, anything on Phobos' sister, Captain Black?" Will asked him.

"No, nothing on that front either." The leader of Section 13 shook his head.

"Well what about one of those locator-spells your Uncle used before, Jackie?" Taranee asked him. "It helped us locate Blunk."

"Uncle's not sure if that would work." Jackie said. "Phobos has his own chi-wizard, and if Daolon Wong could have used the same method to track the heir, they would have already had her by now."

"Well not just for the heir, for Cedric." Taranee said.

"Wouldn't we need a piece of him though?" Hay Lin asked.

"Well the next time we see snake-boy in snake-form, we just take a chip off the old block." Jade said.

"That's if we see him again." Irma countered. "What are the odds we're gonna run into snake-boy in broad day light?"

"Irma has a point." Jackie agreed. "If Cedric wants to maintain his cover, he can't risk attacking us."

"So basically, we're stuck on all fronts." Cornelia sighed as the group present simply had no idea how to proceed.

Will heard her cell-phone ring from her backpack on the far side of the dojo. "Excuse me guys." She ran over to her backpack and answered her phone with her mother on the other side.

"_Hey Will, I need you to come home. You've got extra math homework."_

"Mom, Mrs. Rudolph didn't give me any extra homework." Will replied.

"_No, I did, after reading your mid-term report."_

Will sighed. "Alright, I'm on my way home." Will hung up. "Sorry guys, I gotta go." She picked up her backpack and left the dojo.

"You know what? I think that's enough for today." Jackie said to the other girls. "Get cleaned up and go home. I'll stay with Captain Black and see how I can help with the search."

"Yeah, okay. Come on guys." Jade led Cornelia, Irma, Hay Lin, and Taranee out of the dojo as well.

* * *

After getting cleaned up and changed into their casual clothes; Jade, Irma, Hay Lin, Taranee, and Cornelia met up with Elyon and Alchemy and walked down the street towards a newly opened bookstore.

"Why _this_ bookstore?" Hay Lin asked as they all stood across from the store. "Why can't we get our study guides from the mall or school library?"

"I just get all my study guides from online." Jade said.

"Isn't that cheating?" Alchemy asked.

"It's only cheating if I copy and paste the stuff in my work." Jade replied. "I may not like school, but I'm not a cheater."

"Well; the internet doesn't have a tall hunky manager." Elyon said to Jade.

"With jet-black eyes and a devilish smile." Cornelia added.

"The internet has guys like that… and other things… depending on the website." Irma said as the group walked to the bookstore with Taranee now back to worrying about her essay.

"Maybe if I retrace his steps… I'd find it in a bush or something." Taranee muttered to herself. "Or… on the curb… I thought I saw some papers over there…"

The group walked into the store, but they were mildly surprised to see it was actually pretty messy with stacks of books and boxes all over across the floor, desks, and tables.

"Man, not even my room is this messy." Jade commented.

"Hi!" Cornelia called out to the manager who was somewhere else in the store. "Um… where are the middle school textbooks?"

"All over, I'm afraid!" A voice answered. "There's more in the back."

The group began to walk all around and explore; with Jade, Irma, Taranee, and Hay Lin walking in one direction, while Cornelia, Elyon, and Alchemy stayed closer to the front.

Cedric, in his human form, saw that some of his newer customers were the Guardians and put on a trustworthy face in order to fool them as he stepped out to greet the trio of girls close to him.

"Pardon the mess, I'm still getting organized."

"Oh, me to." Cornelia said quickly upon seeing the man and almost swooned. "I'm Cornelia."

"Elyon Brown."

"Alchemy."

"Rick Hoffman." Cedric introduced his alias with a seemingly friendly smile.

Meanwhile; the other girls were wondering the back area of the store and didn't appear to notice Blunk coming in from an air vent on the ceiling while climbing at the top of the tall bookshelves. The Passling noticed a tape-flytrap with several flies caught in it.

"Old store, new flies." Blunk crawled toward it and ate the trap like a spaghetti noodle before pulling out the clean tape, indicating he swallowed all the flies.

Jade found herself near the very back of the bookstore and found some books with odd, yet familiar writing on them. "Whoa… what's this…?" Her eyes narrowed at the text on the side of one book when her eyes suddenly widened. "Hey guys, over here!"

Taranee, Hay Lin, and Irma walked toward Jade was telling them. 'Hoffman' also happened to hear and discretely walked away from the area to continue unpacking his books from the boxes outside where Cornelia, Elyon, and Alchemy also were.

"Well, I'd better go look for my history book." Cornelia said. "Like that's gonna do me any good. The middle ages are so last week." She walked back inside, leaving the two girls. "His little ponytail is so cute."

The other girls were about as surprised as Jade and turned to Cornelia who was walking toward them. "Corny! Look at the lettering on this book!" Irma pointed to one of the books, not noticing Blunk helping himself to more flytraps along the ceiling just above them.

"I told you to stop calling me…" She saw the writing on the book and her eyes widened. "Oh my… god…"

"That's the same Meridian graffiti from that wall, back when Will and I were doing community service!" Jade pointed out.

"I wonder if the writing's the same inside." Hay Lin picked up the book, but once her finger touched it, she and all the rest of the girls all vanished completely from the store, much to Blunk's shock.

"Girls! Then no girls!" He looked around but couldn't find them. He then quickly crawled out the air vent to try and get help.

"Guys!" Elyon walked throughout the bookstore, along with Alchemy. "Cornelia?"

"Where'd they go?" Alchemy also asked, not noticing that their friends probably just vanished from this dimension entirely.

* * *

Will sat alone at her desk, trying to get her extra work her mom gave her. "Hmm, X equals… oh twelve! So, the correct answer is… X equals Y squared? That's not math, that's spelling." She sighed. "How come it's easier to fight the Forces of Darkness than it is to do math?" She looked to her stuffed frog. "The only math I need to know is how many magic ninjas I need to beat up."

* * *

Hay Lin put the book back on its shelf. "Did you guys just feel something?"

"You mean bored?" Cornelia asked.

"I felt it." Irma said in a somewhat frightened tone.

"So did I." Taranee also said.

"So, wait did we… all just get… the willies?" Jade asked as they all looked around and noticed the hallway, they were in was much bigger. "Uh, wasn't the bookstore smaller than this?"

"Uh on, I think I broke the store." Hay Lin gulped. "All I did was touch this." She looked at the book again, but she and everyone else gasped as the book and all the other books on the shelf began to glow.

"I know this is a lousy cliché but let's get out of here!" Irma exclaimed as the group ran from the area. Once they got to the end of the hallway however, they stopped and saw their path went in two separate directions, which each split off and turned in separate directions of their own. It didn't take long for them to realize they were now in the center of an enormous maze.

"Wow, he renovated fast." Irma commented.

"Uh guys, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." Jade gulped.

Taranee gasped. "Oh no! Everybody back up! Take two right turns!"

"Why?" Cornelia asked.

"Because we just made two _left _turns." Taranee answered as they went back the way they came.

"Oh, I get it! We're in a magic maze." Jade realized once they were back at the spot that they first found themselves at.

"A labyrinth, like Theseus and the Minotaur." Taranee explained.

"I got a B on that!" Hay Lin pointed out.

"Sshh! She's being smart!" Irma shushed Hay Lin.

"We can't just stand here!" Taranee said. "But we're gonna get lost unless we have something to lead us back!"

"Well, anyone got a bottomless bag of breadcrumbs?" Jade asked; when nobody came up with any options, Jade happened to glance at what a certain blonde was wearing. "Hey Cornelia, let me see your sweater real quick."

"Why do you wanna see my sweater?" Cornelia questioned, but her eyes widened in borderline horror once she saw where Jade was going. "Oh no! Oh no! No, no, no, no, no! We can't! Not my sweater!"

"You wanna spend the rest of your natural life stuck in a magic maze that probably has deadly booby traps and monsters in it?" Jade questioned; causing Cornelia to grumble as she took it off and handed it to Jade.

* * *

_Uncle's Rare Finds_

"And you have never seen Cedric before in human form?" Jackie asked Caleb.

"If I did, I would have told you." The young rebel responded. "But why hasn't your Section 13 located the heir yet?"

"Caleb, there are thousands of people living in this city." Jackie answered. "Trying to find one girl out so many is nearly impossible without knowing anything about her."

"Aiya." Uncle sighed. "What was once the girl's protection is now our greatest hindrance."

Suddenly, the air vent on the ceiling opened and Blunk fell out to land on the desk of the shop. "Big trouble!" He exclaimed to the group.

* * *

_Will's Residence_

"And the square root of the boring part is equal to the sum of the boring tedious…" Will muttered to herself in a bored tone of voice, when her phone rang. She picked it up and answered it almost immediately. Anything to get her mind of math.

"Hello? Jackie? What's going… What?!" She stood up in alarm. "Okay, I'm on my way." She hung up her phone and proceeded to leave as quickly as possible.

* * *

Will, along with Tohru, and Yan Lin met with Jackie, Caleb, Uncle, and Blunk at the antique shop owned by the Chi-Wizard. Blunk told everyone what had transpired at the bookstore. Will held the Heart of Kandrakar over the magic map but found now open portals.

"I'm not seeing any portals." Will said. "How can they just vanish like that?"

"It must be an inversion point." Uncle adjusted his glasses. "An area where the veil between realms is at its weakest."

"Sensei, are you suggesting that Jade and the other girls are in Meridian?" Tohru asked.

"I'm afraid so." Uncle confirmed. "And without the Heart of Kandrakar, they have no access to their full Guardian powers."

"Can it work both ways? Will they be able to get back?" Jackie asked.

"It depends on what's on the other side." Yan Lin said.

"Blunk take us to where you last saw Jade and the others, right now." Jackie said. "Will, Tohru, Uncle, Caleb, you will all come with me."

"Yes. Follow Blunk." The Passling nodded.

* * *

_The Labyrinth _

Taranee, Jade, Irma, Hay Lin, and Cornelia continued to walk through the maze, all the while, leaving a thread behind from Cornelia's sweater so they might find their way back and avoid getting lost. But this didn't make Cornelia any less frustrated.

"All those nights… on a hand-carved, seater-sweater-hanger for nothing!" The blonde grumbled.

"Hey, you wanna get lost in this lousy place, go right ahead." Jade told her, causing Cornelia to glare at the black-haired girl.

"Hey Jade, can't you use the Rabbit Talisman to speed your way till you find the end?" Irma asked. "Or the Rooster to fly up and see if you can spot the exit?"

"I don't have any Talismans." Jade said in disappointment. "After that whole mess with Collins, I got the 'The Talismans are not to leave the vault' lecture from Jackie."

"What did that Theseus guy find at the end of his maze, anyway?" Cornelia questioned for the sake of conversation.

"A murderous monster with the head of a bull." Hay Lin said bluntly.

Cornelia shivered and ran closer to the other girls, simply to avoid said encounter. Jade merely scoffed. "Could be worse. Could be a giant demon-dragon, or a demon that can move the moon."

"Have you and Jackie ever thought anything that's _not _a demon before?" Taranee asked.

"Phobos isn't a demon, and I don't think the Shadowkhan are. So, I'd say this whole thing with Meridian is actually a nice change of pace." Jade replied as they continued to walk down the maze. "Although there _was _this one time, we fought an evil monkey-puppet."

* * *

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Blunk had led the group consisting of Jackie, Will, Caleb, Uncle, and Tohru towards the bookstore where the girls disappeared. "Okay, where did they vanish?" Caleb asked.

"Blunk said in the back." Will answered as they went to the back of the store. She spotted Blunk at the top of the shelf. "Where?"

"Nowhere! That's problem!" Blunk responded.

"Where did they disappear?" Jackie clarified.

"Disappear around here." Blunk pointed to the general area.

Tohru happened to look at the books on the shelf. "These texts, they contain the same sort of writing from the message we found a few days ago."

They all looked to where Tohru was pointing. "Tohru is correct. This is the Writing of the Beasts." Uncle said.

"Why would an Earth-bookstore have texts from Meridian?" Caleb asked.

Will looked at the writing, once she did, her vision became somewhat blurry and almost fell back had Jackie not caught her.

"Will?" Jackie asked in concern.

"I just felt… a shiver down my spine."

Uncle's eyes widened slightly. "You… have the willies?"

Everyone looked a bit surprised, as Will reached to grab the book she previously looked at. The second she did, she and everyone else around her vanished except for Blunk.

"Blunk look this way, then that way…" He didn't notice his friends were gone till it was too late. "AH! No Chan Clan!"

* * *

_Labyrinth _

The girls continued to walk and have been walking for who-knows-how-long and have been trying to find the next direction to go in.

"I say that way." Cornelia pointed down one direction.

Taranee pulled on their tether from the what remained of Cornelia's sweater. "Nuh uh, we already went that way."

"And this way." Irma looked back down one area to see their tether-line.

Jade looked towards a corner on the right and saw there wasn't any thread along that path, but she also saw an eerie green light at the end of the path. "We didn't go this way, come on." She led the girls down the path as Taranee continued to leave a line behind.

However, their line soon came to an end. "Guys, we just ran out of thread."

"I don't think we'll need anymore, because I think we just found the exit." Jade said as they came towards an open doorway.

"Finally." Cornelia breathed, hoping they found a way out.

Once they left the maze, they found themselves once again, in a library, but a very different library that they were previously in back on Earth. There were many, many books with a large fireplace at the end of the room; but what gave it an eerie and gothic feeling were the statues of gargoyles and griffins all around the chamber; like something from a gothic cathedral.

"Whoa." Jade breathed. "Evil libraries anyone?"

"Yeah, you think a guy who read all these books would be _teaching _evil by now." Irma muttered, trying to find some levity in the situation they were currently in the middle of.

Cornelia found a door along the side in-between two large bookshelves. "Hey guys, over here." She led them to the wooden door, which led out of the library and into what appeared to be a large medieval kitchen.

Chefs, cooks, and bakers all over bulled bread in and out of large fire-ovens and even turned meat over flames on a stick. Nobody seemed to notice the five girls as they descended along the large stairs along the side. All except for a single kitchen-maid who gasped as she saw them.

"You can't be here!" She looked around to make sure there were no guards or spies. "Follow me!"

* * *

Caleb picked up a piece of thread as he, Jackie, Uncle, Tohru, and Will had found themselves transported into the magical labyrinth, at the exact same spot where all the girls had ended up when they were transported there.

"What do you, think is on the other end of this?" Caleb asked.

"Best guess, Jade probably laughing her butt off at a _very_ pissed offCornelia." Will assumed.

"They left us a trail, very clever." Jackie said with a proud grin.

"No time to just stand here!" Uncle stated. "We must find them before they are captured by the Forces of Darkness!"

No need to be told twice, Will took out the Heart of Kandrakar. "Guardians, wherever you are, let me find you safe." She accessed its power and quickly transformed into her Guardian form.

The group ran as fast as they could; well technically speaking, Jackie, Caleb, and Tohru ran while Will flew and carried Uncle so he could keep up. They followed the path of threat their friends left behind. After turning all the necessary turns and following the right hallway, they came to the exit of the labyrinth and quickly ran into the library inside, only to be greeted by the dark prince who looked surprised to see them.

"You!" Phobos exclaimed.

"Phobos!" Jackie shouted as they split off to avoid the blast of magic power Phobos shot their way.

Caleb jumped onto a rolling-library-ladder and rode it closer to Phobos, but before he could attack, Phobos grabbed him in his magic and threw him to the side. However, this left Phobos vulnerable for Jackie to fly in with a kick and land it in his abs, sending Phobos smacking into the wall. However, Phobos was quick to recover as he shot another blast at Jackie, who back flipped out of the way.

Will flew down with a kick, but Phobos backed way to avoid the impact, but Will tried to deliver a chop to Phobos' face, Will missed as he vanished with his magic, though she managed to slice some of his hair off before he reappeared behind Will, telekinetically grabbing her with his magic and throwing her at Jackie, forcing him to catch her, but the force of the impact sent them to the ground. Before Phobos could press the attack however, he was grabbed by Tohru from behind in the form of a crushing bear-hug.

This only lasted a few seconds however as Phobos exploded magic from his body to send Tohru flying into the charging Caleb. Jackie and Will had already recovered, but before they could attack, Phobos had ensnared them with his magic again and telekinetically pinned them to the wall with one hand while materializing a sword in his other one. Before he could strike however… he felt a burning sensation hit his back. Phobos turned with a glare to see Uncle pointing his blowfish at him.

"You. Evil Prince. Remove your magic from Jackie and Will."

"An old wizard thinks he can best me?" Phobos questioned as he faced Uncle directly. "Leave now or face the consequences."

"You talk the talk, but can you walk the walk?" Uncle challenged.

Phobos glared as he released his grip from Jackie and Will to focus his attention on Uncle, whom he shot at with his sword.

"Come on! We have to help!" Will was ready to fly in, but Jackie put a hand on her shoulder.

"Will, wait." He told her, having a good feeling Uncle could handle himself.

This proved to be true as Phobos was directly above the unphased Uncle, he raised his sword high and attempted to bring it down on him, only for Uncle to catch it with a clap of his hands, much to the surprise of both Phobos and Will.

"Whoa." Will's eyes widened.

Uncle then swept his feet to knock Phobos down as Uncle jumped over him and landed behind to take a marital art stance as Phobos pulled himself back up.

"So, the Prince of Darkness wants a piece of Uncle?"

Tohru picked himself up off Caleb as the young rebel groaned. He saw Phobos facing off against Uncle and was about to help, when Tohru stopped him.

"Wait, I believe Sensei can handle this just fine." Tohru had a knowing grin.

Phobos generated a second sword in his hand as he flew at Uncle and swiped both of them at the elderly man with ferocity, but Uncle avoided all the blade strikes with minimal effort. Phobos gave a vertical swing, but Uncle swerved behind Phobos to deliver a slap to the back of his head. Phobos then hovered in the air to try and blast Uncle with magic, but Uncle had leapt into the air and delivered a flying kick to Phobos to knock him on the ground, close to a large bookshelf, while Uncle landed on his feet.

"Evil prince may be powerful but lacks experience." Uncle commented as Phobos picked himself up. "One more thing."

"What?" Phobos practically snarled.

Uncle pulled out his blowfish to shoot the bookshelf behind Phobos, causing the whole thing to fall on top of him. "Find new reading material."

Caleb's eyes widened in shock, at how Uncle just defeated Phobos so quickly, while Tohru had a proud smile. Jackie smiled as he gave a nod and even Will had an excited look on her face.

"Go Uncle." The red-haired girl commented.

"Do not just stand there! Get cracking!" Uncle told the rest of the group. "We must find Jade and the other Guardians! Hurry!" Everyone got back up and followed Uncle out of the library.

After they all left; the pile of books, along with the fallen shelf, exploded as Phobos used his magic to free himself. He glared in the direction his enemies fled. "Wong!"

A plum of dark blue smoke appeared in front of him as Daolon Wong appeared. "You summoned me, my prince?"

"The Guardian leader, Chan, and their allies are here!" Phobos stated. "Find them! Send out the Tracker! Use your Dark Chi minions and even the Shadowkhan if you must! Find them and bring me the Heart of Kandrakar!"

"As you command." Daolon Wong bowed.

* * *

Meanwhile, the kitchen maid from before, revealed to be named Trill, had led Jade, Taranee, Cornelia, Hay Lin, and Irma out of the castle and to the outskirts of the castle town where several peasants played instruments and danced around a large bonfire as the five girls had sat down and been given blankets and food.

"Wow, it's like camping." Jade said.

"This is wonderful food." Taranee told Trill as she approached the group. "But I don't think we can eat it all."

"Once you told us were the Guardians, everyone brought something." Trill said.

"Well, technically _they're _the Guardians. I'm not." Jade said.

"She does help though." Hay Lin pointed out.

"Yeah, she and her Uncle both kick serious butt!" Irma said excitedly.

"Aw shucks guys." Jade said in a feign humble tone.

"I have to ask though; why did you come here to Meridian in human form?" Trill asked.

"Well believe it or not, we were looking for a history book." Hay Lin answered. "It was a complete accident."

Trill nodded. "Let me refill your drinks." She took their cups.

"Why isn't anyone else eating?" Hay Lin asked.

"Uh… Hay Lin… I think this may be all the food they have." Cornelia pointed out.

"Oh…" Jade looked in honest surprise as she suddenly felt guilty eating what little food these people had so generously given her and her friends.

"Kinda puts a lost essay into perspective." Taranee commented as what she was making such a fuss over felt insignificant compared to what these people probably have to deal with on a daily basis.

Trill returned with a jug of water. "When Phobos took the throne, a light went out over this land. Our men are jailed, our crops are stolen, we have no security, nothing for ourselves, but our dreams."

Jade's eyes narrowed at the mention of Phobos' name. "The heck is that guy's problem anyway?"

"Nobody knows why he does this." Trill began. "But many believe that he fell into darkness after his parents, the previous rulers of Meridian, were killed. Some say that it was Phobos who did the dead himself."

That erected a gasp from all five of the girls. "He killed his own parents?!" Hay Lin almost screamed out of pure horror.

"What kind of monster does something like that?!" Irma said in equally mortified tone.

"I don't know for certain if he did or didn't." Trill began. "But once those rumors spread, nobody in Meridian would bow to him. So, he forced them to. Some believe he killed his parents out of jealousy, for his younger sister would become the next queen while he would not ascend."

"Hold on, I'm confused." Cornelia said. "If Phobos is the _older _sibling, why would his younger sister be first in line for the throne?"

"Meridian is a kingdom based on matrilineal succession." Trill answered. "It is ruled by queens, so only a woman can ascend to the throne."

"Well, I guess that makes sense as to why Phobos would be angry." Cornelia said. "Not that I agree with that scumbag! But if I were in that situation, I'd be pretty upset to."

Trill looked around before she spoke in a whisper. "I have heard rumors in the castle that Phobos' sister lives in Earth on the other side of the Veil? Could this true?"

"Probably, considering the freak always sends his lackies to try and find her." Jade pointed out.

"I only pray that you can find her first." Trill told them. "For years, we have suffered under Phobos; forced to work for pittance in his castle, his stables, his mines, we always have hope… but sometimes, I fear we hope in vein."

"We'll find the true heir and bring her back here. I promise." Irma told Trill.

"Yeah, and we'll beat the ever-loving crap out of Phobos along the way to." Jade stated.

"I thank you." Trill said as she left the girls with their food.

"Oh man… I knew Phobos was a bad guy but… I didn't expect him to be so cruel." Hay Lin looked down, feeling a great deal of pity for what these people had to endure.

"Yeah… feels familiar." Jade muttered.

"Jade?" Taranee asked as the other girls looked toward her.

"Remember how I told you guys about Shendu?" Jade began. "Well, this one time, he wrote in this thing called the Book of Ages; basically, a magic book that records history. He rewrote a certain part of it and created an alternate timeline where he and the rest of his demon family ruled over the entire Earth just like how Phobos rules over Meridian. People had to bow their heads whenever a demon walked down the street, and they didn't even _walk, _they had slaves pulling them on carriages! They had gladiator fights, court jesters, and all that stuff. And, when I tried to get Jackie and the rest of the J-Team to help… I didn't really think much about how these people lived, because I thought if we could fix what Shendu wrote in the Book of Ages, everything would go back to normal, and they did. But… seeing all these people, and hearing what they have to live through… knowing we can't just fix it by writing in a magic book or something… it… it's kinda heartbreaking." Jade was almost tempted to shed tears for these people.

Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin each thought the same thing, but Hay Lin was the first to put a hand on Jade's shoulder. "Hey cheer up Jade, there might not be an _easy _way to fix this, but we can still make it right."

"Yeah; I mean between us, and your Uncle Jackie, not to mention the Rebellion here _and _Section 13, and even the J-Team, we'll have Meridian free in no time." Taranee said.

"And like you said, we'll beat the crap out of Phobos and his buddies along the way." Cornelia smirked.

"So, cheer up you feisty little fighter, you got it?" Irma playfully punched Jade's arm, causing her to laugh and raise her spirits again.

"Yeah, I got it. Thanks guys." Jade said.

Celebrations were soon brought to a screeching halt as an inhumane roar pierced through the air, getting the attention of not just the girls, but the horrified expressions of all the people gathered at the sight.

A red-eyed creature that looked almost like a zombie, dressed in a tethered robe with a witch's hat had walked onto the scene with a dog-like creature at his side, only this 'dog' had the nose of a pig with razor-sharp fangs. And it wasn't just him; Finn, Ratso, and Chow, in their Dark Chi Warrior forms, were also with him.

"Looks you guys are having a party." Finn observed.

"Hope you don't mind if we crash it." Chow said with a smirk as he and his buddies brandished their respective Dark Chi weapons and the zombie-like creature gave another roar.

"The Tracker! And the Dark Wizard's minions! Run!" Trill exclaimed to all the people as they all made a break for it; even Jade, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin ran into the woods as well.

The creature known as the Tracker brandished a glowing flail which he used to destroy the bonfire as he and the Dark Chi Warriors saw the girls run into the woods.

"Hey, aren't those the fairy-girls we keep seeing?" Ratso asked. "They sure don't look like fairies."

"Probably haven't transformed yet." Chow guessed.

The Tracker roared as he and his hound proceeded after them. "Right behind you, Zombie-boy." Finn said as they followed him into the woods.

The girls ran as fast as they could with the Forces of Darkness literally right at their heels. They slid down a hill with the enemy right behind them and ran into an area with more trees hopping to lose them as they ran, slid, and squeezed between the narrow gaps. However, this did little to deter the enemy as the Tracker used his flail to knock down several of the trees with the Dark Chi Trio using their weapons to slice and bash down the trees themselves. Fortunately, it would take them some time to completely clear the way, allowing the girls to get plenty of distance as they hid underneath a large log.

"That is one ugly mother…" Jade muttered.

"Jade!" Taranee said in a harsh whisper.

"I was gonna say a face only a mother could love!" Jade quickly retorted.

"Sssh! Quiet, or they'll hear us." Cornelia whispered.

"Do you think it can find us in here?" Hay Lin muttered.

"With _that _nose. It looked like it could find us in _China_!" Taranee stated.

The group remained quiet and it didn't appear that either the Tracker, his hound, or the Dark Chi warriors had found them. "I'll go check outside." Irma whispered as she crawled toward the opening in a log.

The moment she peeked her head out, a pair of hands grabbed her by the shoulders and yanked her out with a scream.

"Irma!" Cornelia exclaimed as they all crawled out of the log to try and help her, only to look in shock as two Shadowkhan had already had good grip on her, with one covering her mouth with his hand to prevent her from screaming.

"Shadowkhan!" Jade exclaimed as several more Shadowkhan appeared behind each of them to grab them from behind and cover their mouths with their hands in the same fashion. They all struggled as they couldn't even voice a scream as the Shadowkhan pulled them into the shadows of the forest and vanished.

All five of the girls were pulled into a clearing as they were surrounded by at least twenty Shadowkhan, five of them were each holding one of the girls and keeping their hands pinned behind their backs.

"Let us go!" Hay Lin screamed.

"Hey, watch where you're grabbing!" Cornelia glared.

"Back off before I kick you guys in the…" Jade's warning was cut off as they were brought before the Tracker, his hound, and the Dark Chi Warrior trio.

"Well, well, well, look what we have here." Ratso practically sang.

"Gotta love these ninja-guys." Finn smirked, referring to the Shadowkhan.

"Whoa, wait, hold on are you guys seriously okay with this?!" Irma exclaimed. "I mean, I know you were part of a crime syndicate and even worked for a demon and all, but guys! Come on! Phobos is a total psychopath!"

"Seriously, the nutjob killed his own parents for crying out loud!" Jade exclaimed.

That took the Dark Hand trio by surprise. "Whoa, are you serious?!" Chow almost shouted.

"He killed his own mom and dad?" Ratso voiced in a shaky tone.

"That is just messed up." Finn shook his head in disgust.

"Well technically, nobody has any _proof _he killed his parents... so…" Taranee was cut off as Cornelia kicked her leg. "Ow!"

"But look, you guys have seen what Meridian is like, Phobos is a full-blown tyrant!" Cornelia tried to reason.

"Seriously, do you guys really wanna work for someone like that?" Hay Lin questioned.

"Look we don't have a choice, okay?" Finn stated. "It's kinda hard to so 'no' to someone who can blast you with magic."

"And the fact that were also bound to a dark wizard's magic and enslaved to do his bidding doesn't really help either." Ratso added.

"Um… you guys aren't gonna kill us… are you?" Jade hopped as she and the other girls looked in fear as the Tracker brandished his flail with deadly intent.

"Whoa, whoa, take it easy zombie-boy." Chow stopped the Tracker from doing anything ugly. "They're just kids."

"And Phobos didn't specifically say _to _kill them." Ratso pointed out.

"Maybe we could just… I don't know, tie em up or throw em in a dungeon or something?" Finn questioned.

"Yeah, it's not like they can do anything without their magic powers." Chow added.

"Oh I got magic powers for you guys!"

Will suddenly flew over the group as she brandished the Heart of Kandrakar. **"Guardians Untie!" **Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin were engulfed in bright flashes of magic as they were pulled out of the Shadowkhan's grip and into the air. Jade even used this opportunity to stomp onto the foot of the Shadowkhan that held her, forcing him to let go as Jade ran underneath the Guardians once they finished their transformation.

"Will, how did you find us?" Hay Lin asked as they all hovered in the air.

"Are you kidding? There's a trail of mutant dog slobber all the way from the castle." Will said with a smile, glad she made it in time.

The enemy didn't have time to attack as a few Shadowkhan were obliterated by blasts of Chi-Magic from Uncle, who wielded a blowfish in one hand and a dried-lizard in another. He ran down along with Jackie, Tohru, and Caleb. Jackie performed a leaping kick to knock the Tracker back as Caleb ran to tackle Ratso and Tohru knocked back Finn and Chow with swipes from his hand. Jade then ran to the Shadowkhan as the Guardians flew in as well, beginning the fight.

Will flew in with a powerful kick to a Shadowkhan, obliterating it in a puff of smoke with her increased strength. She was quickly surrounded by five more Shadowkhan, but Will took a combat stance similar to what she saw Jackie did in training earlier and even made the same hand-gesture to bring it on. She blocked and parried each punch and kick the Shadowkhan lashed at her before she flew into the air above them.

"You guys aren't technically alive, so there really is no reason for me to hold back." Will smirked as she flew down and punched with all the enhanced strength that she had to obliterate one Shadowkhan. She blocked a punch from the second Shadowkhan and destroyed him with a powerful kick to the head before flipping and delivering a kick to a third Shadowkhan's jaw to send it flying before sweeping her feet to knock the fourth and fifth Shadowkhan onto the ground just as the third one landed hard on them, causing all five of them to disappear.

Jackie found himself face-to-face with the Tracker as he made a combat stance. The Tracker threw his glowing flail at Jackie, forcing him to run and swerve to the side. Jackie quickly ran up a tree just as the Tracker threw his flail out to obliterate the trunk of the tree and send it crashing down, but Jackie had already made it to the top and jumped over it to land behind the Tracker, where he grabbed him by the shoulders and heaved him over his head to send him rolling across the ground.

However, Jackie didn't get the time to celebrate as the Tracker's hound had leapt onto Jackie, pinning him to the ground. Fortunately, Jackie was able to grab a stick off the ground and prop it under the hound's chin to keep it from biting down onto his throat.

"Bad dog! Bad dog! Bad dog! Bad dog! Bad dog!"

Tohru was now facing both Finn and Chow in their Dark Chi Warrior forms as the large man grabbed a nearby log and used it as a weapon to block Chow as he came in with his staff, but Finn threw out his bladed-weapon, which cut the log into several pieces and render it useless. Finn and Chow proceeded to run at Tohru, who seemed more than ready to face them with just his fists, but that proved unnecessary.

"Heads up Tohru!" Taranee flew in from above him and threw a large fireball at the ground below the Dark Chi warrior pair. It exploded and sent Finn flying backwards and Chow to land directly at Tohru's feet. Chow gave a nervous laugh as he saw Tohru glaring down before he picked up Chow and threw him into the air.

While airborne, Taranee produced another fireball in her hand and flew right at Chow while he was in the air and actually 'punched' the fireball into Chow's gut, causing him to explode in flame and vanish in a flaming puff of blue smoke right after.

"Thank you Taranee." Tohru gave her a thumbs up.

"No problem big guy." She smiled at him.

Finn however survived as he pulled himself up and was ready to charge in for some payback. "I'll teach you to mess with Finn 2.0" However, Uncle had landed right in front of Finn and obliterated him with a blast of chi-magic from his blowfish.

"And I'll teach _you _to mess with Uncle original recipe."

Caleb was on the defensive from Ratso's devastating strikes with his large hammer. He jumped and ran to avoid all the powerful blows, even jumping up onto a tree from a tree branch, only for the tree to be blown away from a strike at the trunk with Ratso's hammer. The entire tree began to fall, but Caleb had already landed on his feet, but Ratso threw his hammer out which exploded at Caleb's feet to send him flying and skidding across the ground. He looked up to see Ratso standing above him with his hammer.

"Sorry kid, nothing personal." Ratso was ready to smash him when he was suddenly shot straight up by a tree that grew out of the ground. Ratso was caught by the back of his clothes by a tree branch as the tree ascended up high; up to where it was more sixty feet off the ground. He came to a halt in front of Cornelia who hovered in the air with crossed arms.

"Uh… nice tree." Ratso complemented. "You know, you'd make a pretty good florist." He said honestly.

"Thanks." Cornelia said before punching him right in the face.

Caleb got up as he heard Ratso's scream as the Dark Chi warrior fell and vanished in a puff of blue smoke as he hit the ground.

"Need a hand, rebel boy?" Cornelia smirked as she descended down to Caleb's level, the young rebel said nothing as he only smiled and rubbed the back of his sore neck.

Hay Lin and Irma hovered in the air as they faced what looked like fifteen or so Shadowkhan; but the pair knew better than to face them in hand-to-hand combat. So instead; Irma brought her hands together and sent out a large blast of water in the form of raindrops that shot out almost like a gatling gun. It was far too fast for even the Shadowkhan to dodge, but not strong enough to destroy them, only get them soaking wet, which was what Hay Lin needed as she inhaled and blew out a large gust of cold wind. Within seconds all the Shadowkhan down below were frozen solid before Hay Lin threw out two compressed air disks which she manipulated to slice and shatter each frozen Shadowkhan before the two girls high-fived.

"Ninjasickles anyone?" Irma cracked.

Jackie meanwhile continued to hold the hound at back as best as he could as the Tracker approached him, twirling his flail to appear more menacing, however…

"Hey ugly!"

The Tracker turned around only to see Jade's incoming foot right before it made contact with his face, knocking him down. Will flew in to knock the hound off Jackie with a shoulder-strike, sending it skidding across the ground.

"Thank you Will." Jackie said as he stood back up and stood alongside Will and Jade.

"Normally I love dogs, but that thing is really ugly." Will commented.

"You think _he's _ugly, look at his master. I mean seriously, is that thing a zombie or what?!" Jade commented.

The Tracker growled as it stood back up and threw its flail out again. Though Will and Jade flew or ran to the side, Jackie stood his ground and kicked the flail with his foot before catching the chain with his both his hands. He then began to pull on the chain, which the Tracker tried to pull back, pitting his own strength against Jackie's. For a moment, it seemed as though the Tracker was slightly stronger as Jackie felt himself being pulled a bit closer to him.

However, this left the Tracker open for Will to fly in with a punch to the face, knocking him off balance and letting Jade come in to grab his feet in-between her legs, where she twisted her hips to bring the Tracker down on the ground face-first.

Before he could recover, Will picked up the Tracker by his shirt and flew up twenty feet in the air with him. "Thank you for choosing J-WITCH Air Lines. Enjoy your flight!" She cracked as she used her strength to throw the Tracker far into the woods, where the ugly beast roared and howled in pain as it slammed and skidded across the trees before coming to a painful halt deep in the woods and far away from the heroes. The hound ran into the woods after its master as Will flew down to meet Jade, Jackie, as well as Cornelia, Hay Lin, Uncle, Caleb, Irma, Taranee, and Tohru.

"Nice throw." Jade smirked as she and Will exchanged a fist-bump.

With the enemy dealt with and everyone back together again, they began to walk out of the forest.

"I'm so glad you guys came." Hay Lin said as she leaped to hug Tohru who only smiled.

"And we're glad you're all okay." Tohru replied as he gently patted the energetic girl's back.

"Yeah, we're all happy to be back together and all, but how the heck are we gonna get home?" Irma questioned.

"Use Heart of Kandrakar to find portal, which we close immediately upon exiting." Uncle stated.

"Hey, we also met a bunch of villagers." Cornelia revealed. "They helped us get out of the castle."

"I can't stop thinking about how horrible their lives are under Phobos." Hay Lin said with sympathy evident in her voice.

"They gave us their own food." Taranee said in the same tone of voice.

"They're good people." Caleb said. "Don't worry, in the days ahead, you'll have plenty of chances to repay them."

"Hey uh Caleb, did Phobos really kill his own parents?" Jade asked the young rebel as Will, Jackie, Tohru, and even Uncle were surprised by that revelation.

"What?!" Jackie exclaimed.

"I mean… yeah the guy's pretty evil but… kill your own parents… I can't imagine that." Jade voiced.

"I don't have any proof that he _did _do it, but I wouldn't put it past him." Caleb said with a vindictive tone in his voice.

"Well, whether it's true or not, the next time I see him…" Tohru cracked his own knuckles. "I'll personally turn him inside out."

Will chuckled slightly. "Or we can just sick Uncle on him again. I mean, seriously, when we got here, Uncle practically wiped the floor with that jerk!"

"Say what?!" Cornelia voiced in shock.

"Wow, really?!" Irma exclaimed with a wide grin.

"That's amazing!" Taranee said with a large smile of her own.

"Oh man, I would have _loved _to see that!" Irma smirked.

"I believe that." Jade said with a knowing smirk herself, having seen Uncle in action before. "Don't mess with the Uncster."

"Do not underestimate Phobos." Uncle stated. "Uncle may have bested him one, but he is smart enough not to underestimate his enemies again. That and his knowledge of dark magic and resources in Meridian make him a dangerous foe."

"A foe that we will defeat." Jackie said with a determined look in his eyes; one that everyone around him matched as they all silently agree and vowed. They _will_ defeat Phobos and free Meridian from his iron-grip.

* * *

_Sheffield Institute – The Next Day_

Cornelia was about to enter the school when she heard one of her friends call to her. "Hey, Hey Cornelia!" She turned around to see Elyon and Alchemy running toward her. "Where'd you go yesterday? You just left us in that store!"

"Seriously, you didn't even say anything. You just vanished!"

Cornelia's eyes widened, having forgotten about all that. "Oh no! Elyon, Alchemy, I am so sorry! Something urgent came up and my mind was in another world."

"You've been doing this a lot lately." Elyon pointed out. "Are we best friends or what?"

"Of course, we are!" Cornelia stated. "Come on, let me make it up to you guys and buy you some doughnuts."

Alchemy's eyes lit up. "Oooh, apology accepted."

Elyon however sighed. "Cornelia, you _know _I don't like doughnuts."

"Yeah, but there's a really cute guy serving." Cornelia teased.

"Okay, _now_ you got my attention." Elyon smiled.

* * *

Meanwhile; Taranee met up with her teacher, the same one who believed she didn't turn her essay in time.

"I apologize." She said to him out of the blue.

"For… for what…?" He asked, surprised.

"Making such a big deal out of a silly essay… and asking a principle to suspend you without pay."

The teacher smiled, having accepted her apology, but had one of his own to give. "Well, _I _apologize for putting your essay in my fridge and bringing a pound of ham to school." He reached into his bag to pull out the essay she, did in fact, turn in early. "A perfect paper. Your description of the labyrinth, it's almost as if you were there."

Taranee smiled innocently and nervously. Even though she turned in the essay before that whole mess, her teacher had no idea just how right he was. "Yeah… almost."

* * *

_Uncle's Rare Finds_

After school had ended; Will and Jade met with Jackie, Uncle, Tohru, and Caleb at the antique shop as they discussed their next step.

"So, our mission to find the heir really hasn't changed a bit." Will commented.

"I'm still concerned of what an inversion point would be doing at a bookstore." Jackie pointed out.

"Did you guys notice there were books with _Meridian _writing in the back? In an _Earth _bookstore?" Jade reminded.

"Perhaps they were there by accident, because of the inversion point." Tohru voiced.

"Bookstore owner is very foolish to place property in very dangerous area." Uncle said.

Jackie put a finger to his chin. Foolish… or something else? He narrowed his eyes, making a silent note to check out the store for himself and talking with Captain Black about it.

"Still, we know the heir is somewhere here in this city but no idea where." Caleb said.

"Maybe this could help…" Will pulled out some strands of hair from her pocket.

"Will… is that…?" Jackie voiced in surprise.

"Some of Phobos' hair." Will revealed. "I managed to pull some off during the fight. Maybe we could use one of those locator spells…"

"Aiya! Uncle been over this already!" The elderly chi-wizard pointed out. "Heir must be protected by magic! We cannot locate her with evil-prince-hair!"

"Do you know this for a fact, though?" Caleb questioned.

"Sensei, we don't know for certain if the heir is truly protected. And maybe Phobos doesn't either." Tohru pointed out.

"It's a long shot, but it's the _only _shot we got." Jade added.

"Uncle, I realize that it may be unlikely, but we have to know for certain." Jackie told him. "Until we know who the heir is, we are still blind. Phobos and his forces may be blind as well, but with Cedric hiding in Heatherfield, that may not be the case for long."

"Hmmm." Uncle placed his fingers to his chin. They all made valid points, and maybe it wouldn't hurt just to know for sure. "Do not stand there! Get cracking!"

* * *

Five minutes later; the group had gathered in the back of Uncle's shop as the elderly chi-wizard placed the strands of Phobos' hair into a caldron filled with water as he took out a dried lizard; while Will, Jackie, Jade, Caleb, and Tohru stood in a circle around Uncle as he took a meditative stance in front of the cauldron, each of them holding an incense ern as Uncle recited a familiar chant.

"_Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao"_

The second Uncle began to make his chant, his dried lizard began to glow green with Chi-magic, which he pointed to the cauldron, causing the water inside to glow green and boil as well. Will, Caleb, Jackie, Jade, and Tohru also joined Uncle in chanting his incantation.

"_Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao."_

As the five of them chanted, each of their incest urns they held began to glow with the same green energy as chi-magic attached each urn's power to the other, forming a perfect circle as all six of them chanted. The hair inside the bubbling cauldron began to lift as the green energy began to surge immensely threw it and a powerful whirlwind began to blow around the area. As they continued to chant, nobody, not even Will noticed the Heart of Kandrakar she wore beginning to glow green as opposed to its usual pink glow.

"_Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao!" _

The hair flashed a bright green light before the magic vanished entirely and the hair fell back into the water. Everyone looked in surprise as they saw the hair was unresponsive.

"So… what's supposed to happen now?" Will asked.

"The locator spell couldn't work." Uncle stated. "Powerful magics indeed surrounds the missing heir to prevent outside forces from locating her."

Caleb couldn't help but sigh in disappointment. "So, it is true. We can't find her with magic. Not this type anyway."

"We still had to make sure, Caleb." Jackie said.

"Look at the bright side; if we can't use chi-magic to locate the heir, that means Wong or Phobos can't either." Jade pointed out.

"Which means that, for the moment, the heir is safe from the Forces of Darkness." Tohru said.

"So long as Phobos and his forces remain free, nothing is truly safe." Uncle said in a grim expression as their job had only become that much harder.

**Done. **

**So that was a fun chapter. The Guardians and Chan-Clan now have a better understanding just how crucial it is they defeat Phobos, given how much the people of Meridian are suffering under Phobos. And they are more than determined to put a stop to him. **

**We even had Uncle go one-on-one with Phobos, and of course, Uncle won. Go Uncle :)**

**Note: Even though everyone is saying that Phobos killed his parents, I am once again confirming that he did NOT. But I am NOT going to say who IS responsible. You won't find out for a very long while. **

**And also, the heroes have confirmed that they cannot locate the missing heir to the throne with a locator spell as she is protected by powerful magics; so, neither J-WITCH nor the Forces of Darkness can find her, yet, but they still each have their ways. It's a race against time as the quest to find and locate the missing heir continues. Who will prevail int his war of good or evil? Find out as J-WITCH continues. **


	9. Divide and Conquer - Chaos and Hilarity

**Hi everyone, thanks again for your patience. I'm glad this story has received so much attention, this is one chapter I've been wanting to write for some time as we introduce a certain JCA villain that I really like. So anyways, without further delay, let us begin. **

**Divide and Conquer – Chaos and Hilarity **

A pair of construction workers used their jackhammers to drill away at the pile of spilled concrete. As they continued to drill, one of them happened to unearth something that resembled a puppet of a monkey in an outfit similar to a jester. The construction worker picked it up out of curiosity.

"Hey Mahone, what is that?" His friend asked.

"Some kind of monkey puppet." As he began to inspect it, he found some writing engraved onto its back. "'To free me of glitches and put you in stitches, this merry ape begs: pull my leg'" He read aloud. The two Construction workers looked at it curiously before he pulled on the puppet's leg.

The second he did, the puppet's eyes began to glow red as it chuckled mischievously and evilly. As the puppet began to glow, purple smoke began to emit out of the puppet and engulf construction worker as a monkey's cackle was heard. When the smoke vanished, the puppet became a living creature once more, for the Monkey King had returned.

"The Monkey King is back, baby!" The magical prankster laughed as the second construction worker looked in shock, and even greater shock to see his friend having been turned into a puppet himself. "Mucho thanko for the lego yanko." The Monkey King thanked his victim before tossing the puppet to the second construction worker.

"Ma… Mahone!?"

"Wax him up once a week to keep his shine up." The Monkey King handed him a thing of wax before taking a downed jackhammer, which he spun briefly before using it on a pile of cement to make tiny identical statues of Jackie and Jade. "Now tell me, man to mandrill, know where I can find these two?" He asked the construction worker.

"Who are they?"

The Monkey King gave an angry chirp as he answered. "They are the ones who chucked me back to Woodville and tried to cement my face! The maharaja of monkey shines! But the last laugh will be on _them._" He took out a large mallet and smashed the statues. "Cause it's payback time!"

* * *

_Meridian – Phobos' Caste_

The Dark Prince sat on his throne as usual as Cedric, in his human form, and Daolon Wong reported to him.

"You still have no information of my sister's identity?" Phobos questioned.

"No, my prince." Wong replied. "It has proven more difficult than expected."

Phobos' eyes narrowed. "Now that we know Chan and the Guardians have Earth's forces to aid them, we cannot afford any mistakes. If they find her before we do, all is lost."

"In my guise as the book-seller, with the aid of the Shadowkhan, I can locate and remove each of them one-at-a-time." Cedric proposed.

"I feel you underestimate Chan and his allies, even the elderly Chi-wizard was more of a challenge than I could have anticipated." Phobos stated.

"But perhaps there is a way we can apply the divide-and-conquer strategy." Wong said. "We can find a way to separate and isolate them before the girls can transform into their Guardian form. If we take the Heart of Kandrakar, not even Chan will be able to stop us."

An intrigued look fell on Phobos' face. "An interesting strategy. Do it and bring me the Heart."

"Yes, Prince Phobos." Wong and Cedric both bowed to him.

* * *

_Earth – Sheffield Institute _

"Our own Mount Heatherfield." The teacher in the classroom began to explain to the students present. "Site of this weekend's ski-trip, sits atop a volcano that's been dormant for years, and years, and years."

As the teacher continued to talk, Matt glanced in Will's direction. When she looked back, he looked away to try and hide the blush on his cheeks.

"I think Matt likes me." Will whispered to Jade who sat next to her.

"What makes you think that?" Jade whispered back.

"He's not looking at me." Will responded, causing Jade to look in confusion.

* * *

Lunch time rolled around as usual as Jade, Will, Cornelia, Hay Lin, Taranee, Irma, and even Elyon and Alchemy at lunch at the same table together.

"Ooh, I so can't wait for this weekend's ski trip!" Hay Lin beamed excitedly. "It's gonna be so fun!"

"I know!" Alchemy agreed. "I hear the food at the ski chalet is even better than this!"

Taranee's eyelids lowered. "Guys, the table we're eating off of is better than this."

"That's why I bring a packed lunch." Jade smirked as she pulled out a sandwich and took a bite. "Hmm, ham and parmesan cheese."

"Way to rub it in." Cornelia grumbled, wondering why she never packed her lunch before.

"Weren't we supposed to get that new student from Switzerland today?" Will wondered.

"Maybe she's here and we didn't notice." Elyon guessed.

The doors at the entrance suddenly opened dramatically as a girl walked into the cafeteria, drawing the attention of virtually every boy there. Though nearly every guy was enamored by her appearance, such as her seemingly fair skin and long orange hair, the seven girls at the table could easily feel an arrogant aura surrounding her.

"I'm guessing, that's her." Jade assumed.

* * *

The rest of the day passed by pretty normal, save for the girl, whose name was revealed to be Sondra having a parade of guys surrounding her. Ordinarily, that would be fine for some of the girls, but she took her snobbish attitude even further with constant criticism and nagging which only drove them further up the wall.

"Ugh, she says she makes her own clothes." Hay Lin complained as they all walked home from school. "Her sweater's made from 'casmu from under the chin of my grandmother's goat in the alps'" She put on a fake accent.

"No way that's a real accent." Alchemy grumbled.

"Yeah, I bet she just watched like twenty Hidey movies before she came here." Elyon added.

"She dissed me for not reading 'War and Peace' in 'the original Russian'." Taranee said. "I'd like to _feed _her the book in 'the original Russian'."

"She's got virtually every guy following her like a pack of rabid wolves." Cornelia scowled.

"Tell me about it!" Irma agreed. "Martin didn't even serenade me last night with his bajo. He was baking 'welcome Sondra' muffins!"

"Okay yeah, she's annoying, but honestly she's not the worst." Jade said.

"Seriously!?" Hay Lin, Irma, Alchemy, and Cornelia questioned at the same time.

"Well it's not like she's a crime lord or evil royalty with plans of world domination like… _some _people." Jade put in.

"world domination? Evil royalty? Jade where do you come up with this stuff?" Elyon asked.

"Well, I watch a lot of movies." Jade quickly said. "Plus, I've seen stuff on the news of people who are _way _worse."

"Yeah, you know what? Jade's right." Will agreed. "There are worse things to worry about besides some snobbish transfer student."

Irma, Cornelia, Taranee, and Hay Lin seemed to be in silent agreement. Compared to the likes of Phobos, Cedric, or Wong; Sondra was a mere nuisance and she wasn't worth worrying about.

"So come on guys, we got a ski trip this weekend!" Jade told everyone. "The only thing we should worry about, is what hill to sled down first!"

That seemed to get everyone out of their glum mood as they continued to walk. However, none of them seemed to notice that as they walked past an alleyway, their entire conversation was heard by a pair of Shadowkhan that blended into the darkness in the alleyway. Once they heard what they needed, they retreated back into the shadows to alert their masters of this news.

* * *

_The Silver Dragon_

After parting ways with Elyon and Alchemy; the six girls of J-WITCH had arrived just outside of Hay Lin's family restaurant, but were surprised to see Jackie, Caleb, Uncle, and Tohru arrive from the opposite direction.

"Oh, hey guys, what are you doing here?" Jade asked.

"Miss Lin asked us to come, she said an important visitor had called for us." Jackie explained.

The girls looked towards each other in confusion. "What kind of visitor?" Irma asked.

"She didn't say." Tohru responded.

They soon walked into the restaurant, which didn't appear to have anyone else inside, not even other employees such as waiters or cooks.

"Grandma, we're home!" Hay Lin called.

"Over here!" Yan Lin called from around the corner.

"Hey what did you need us for…" Will however gasped as they turned the corner, and everyone looked completely stumped to find a certain crime lord in a green suit standing with a causal yet sinister smile.

"Good afternoon." Valmont greeted.

Immediately everyone was put on the defensive as Jackie, Caleb, and Tohru stood protectively in front of the girls and Uncle with their fists raised, even Hay Lin and Jade made martial art stances as Will took out the Heart of Kandrakar ready to say the magic words.

"Easy, easy, I have come unarmed!" Valmont raised his hands to show that he had no weapon of any kind."

"What do you want, Valmont?!" Jackie demanded.

"And how did you managed to find this place?" Uncle questioned as well.

"Despite my current predicament, I still have my resources, and it wasn't all that difficult." Valmont answered.

"Grandma, why the heck did you let _this _guy in here?!" Hay Lin questioned her grandmother.

"Hay Lin, trust me." Yan Lin assured her granddaughter.

"I am not here to seek any trouble I assure you." Valmont said with a straightforward face.

"That's a first." Jade scoffed as Tohru growled with a nod in agreement.

"To the contrary, I have come with a proposition." Valmont began. "As I've said, I have my resources and I have managed to catch wind of your little… quest. You are looking for a particular individual who's identify has remained a secret, correct?"

"Do _you _know who we're looking for?" Taranee asked skeptically.

"No, but I imagine they must be of great importance as the likes of an anthropomorphic snake and a dark wizard are also searching for them." Valmont responded, only to be grabbed by Caleb and pulled by the collar closer towards the young rebel's face.

"And how can we trust that you're not working for them?!" Caleb questioned.

Valmont maintained a straight face as he causally removed Caleb's hand from his collar. "I have no further desire to align myself with the Forces of Darkness. I've had _more _than my fair share of trouble just with that blasted Fire Demon. Unlike the monstrosities that you are all currently fighting, I have no desire for world destruction, I'm a businessman; and all this magical and end-of-the-world nonsense is bad for business. Seeing as we have a common thorn, I have a proposition for all of you: Chan, you and Tohru, as well as these five young ladies, become my new Enforcers."

"What?!" Nearly everyone, aside from Yan Lin, did not expect that.

"As you can imagine, since the disappearance of my previous henchman, I've hit quite a rut." Valmont explained. "I've even been reduced to performing my own dirty work. However, you are each skilled in your own way, especially you young ladies, with your magical powers, we can easily rebuild the Dark Hand, stronger than ever."

"Why the heck would we _ever _want to work for a sleezebag like you?!" Will exclaimed.

"Because I can help with your quest." Valmont continued. "As I've said, I'd rather not have this planet fall under the Forces of Darkness, thus giving us a common goal. I can even use my resources to help you locate this person you are seeking, and in return, you help me rebuild my organization."

"And by that you want us to rob banks, steal priceless artifacts, and all that jazz." Cornelia said with lowered eyelids and a glare.

"Essentially, yes." Valmont confirmed. "But with your abilities, it shouldn't be that much of a problem for… OW!" The crime lord felt his forehead where Uncle dope slapped him.

"Guardians are meant to _guard, _not to steal! It is in the name!" Uncle exclaimed.

"Yeah, we're the _good _guys!" Hay Lin quickly added.

"I don't see a reason why you cannot multi-task." Valmont quickly replied before turning to the girls. "I'll even pay each of you, a very handsome salary."

"With what? You're broke." Jade noted.

"For the moment." Valmont acknowledged. "But I'm good for it, Tohru knows as he did work for me." He glanced up at the sumo.

"You made me fight a demon that almost got me killed." Tohru glared.

"Yes, but you have since battled magic on a frequent basis and have gotten stronger for it, haven't you?" Valmont countered.

Jackie sighed and he shook his head. "Just when I thought you couldn't stoop any lower, Valmont. They are _children!_ Not your personal henchman to do as you see fit!"

"Give us a reason why we'd even _think _about working for you!" Taranee quickly added.

"Because you wouldn't want these falling in the wrong hands, would you?" Valmont reached into his coat to pull out a large envelope which he opened on a table to show something that caught all of them, especially the girls of WITCH, by surprise, so much so they gasped.

They were photos! Photos of them! Valmont had pictures of Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin, each of them in their human and Guardian forms, as well as pictures of each of their homes and addresses, some even showed pictures of their parents as well.

"Wait… you've been following us?!" Will exclaimed, as she and most of her friends felt extremely violated by this.

"Stalker much?!" Irma questioned.

"If you come and work for me, I'll not only help you with your quests, I'll even provide you each with a handsome salary that'll keep you all wealthy for years to come." Valmont proposed. "If not, well, I can think of some very powerful, yet very dangerous, individuals who could find this information to be… useful." He said with an evil smirk. "If you ask me, I'm making you a very generous offer."

Will, Cornelia, Irma, Hay Lin, and Taranee looked more than a little nervous as Valmont had proof in his hands of not only their identities as Guardians, but their homes as well. Jackie, Jade, Tohru, and Uncle however looked at Valmont with contempt; while he has blackmailed before, this was still low, even for him. Caleb looked ready to beat him up with nothing more than his fists, Yan Lin had already beaten him to it.

"Let me see if I understand you correctly, Mr. Valmont." Yan Lin began. "You believe these five girls; these five, teenage, rebellious, and headstrong girls possess powerful magical abilities, the likes of which can defeat even of the most vile of monsters, who are currently being trained by men that you _know _have defeated _demons _with nothing more than simple spells and their bare hands… and your response is to _blackmail _these people?"

Valmont's smile faded into an expression of nervousness as he glanced at everyone around him; all of them glared as Will had her hands firmly on the Heart of Kandrakar while Jackie crossed his arms and even Tohru cracked his enormous knuckles for emphasis.

"Good luck with that." Yan Lin told him with a smile.

Realizing he had essentially walked into the lion's den, Valmont tried to keep a straightforward face as he knew he had to get out as fast as possible. "Right… well you can keep these." He handed Jackie the envelope of all the photos he'd taken. "Thank you for your time. I'll be on my way." He walked well past the group and out the door. Once he was outside the building, they saw him running as fast he could through the window.

In just a few seconds, virtually everyone, save for Uncle, laughed at what had just played out in front of them.

"Grandma, you are awesome!" Hay Lin exclaimed.

"I try." Yan Lin shrugged.

"Did you see him run out like that?" Cornelia chuckled.

"We just went all roadrunner on us!" Jade laughed as well.

Will laughed a bit to. "Guess we should call Captain Black and let him now."

"I'll gladly hunt him down myself if I have to." Tohru voiced.

"Pretty sure you'd snap him in half." Irma said. "Not that I'd be _against_ the idea, mind you."

"I already sent him a message when we first saw Valmont in this restaurant." Jackie said with a relieved smile. "I feel we won't have any further trouble with him."

"Yeah, the only thing we should worry about is what we need to buy for the ski trip this weekend." Taranee said.

"A ski trip?" Caleb questioned. "Your Guardians working to battle evil, and you're worried about something like a ski trip?"

"Rebel boy is correct. Waste of time." Uncle agreed.

"It's a little something called 'fun'." Irma said.

"Yeah, as much as I _love _fighting the Forces of Darkness, nothing wrong with taking a break every now and then." Cornelia agreed.

"Don't be too hard on them guys." Jade said. "Fun is a foreign language to these two." She cracked.

"Hey, I know what fun is!" Caleb exclaimed. "I have it all the time!"

"Uh speaking of which, we need an extra chaperone for the trip." Will said as she turned to Jackie. "So, if you're not busy…"

Jackie smiled. "Of course, I'll come. I believe you girls are all due for a break as well."

Hay Lin and Jade wasted no time in hugging him. "Thanks, so much Uncle Jackie!" Jade exclaimed.

"Oh, this is gonna be so fun!" Hay Lin exclaimed. "Tohru, you wanna come to?"

Tohru smiled and chuckled. "Thank you, but I don't think skis would do well for me." He gestured to his large body, causing the six girls to laugh at his joke.

* * *

The weekend was already here as students from Sheffield, along with several chaperones including Jackie Chan and Principle Knickerbocker, helped to load the students and their packed suitcases onto the buses.

As Will, Jade, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin brought their stuff, they happened to spot the snob known as Sondra walking backwards towards the bus as several guys carried her bags for her. "Merci." She told the boys as the girls simply looked a bit annoyed.

"Great, she's coming to." Cornelia grumbled.

"Uh she does know she just thanked them in French, right?" Taranee noted.

"Just ignore her, guys." Will told her friends. "We're going to have some fun on this trip, so let's not let some snob ruin it for us."

Everyone seemed to get the message as they began to pack their bags into the storage compartments at the bottom of the busses. As they began to load one of the bus, Will looked in surprise to see Sondra sitting next to Matt.

She gave a sigh as she sat down at an empty seat and looked out the window. "This seat taken?" Jade asked as she sat down. "Okay, what's eating you?"

"That." Will pointed her thumb back to show her crush sitting next to the snobbish girl.

"What, you gotta crush on him or something?" Jade attempted to make a joke but saw the look on Will's face and saw she was serious. "Oh. Well… hey, if the guy has any real brains, I'm sure he'll see right through her. I mean, we do."

Will chuckled. "Well, I can always count on you to make me laugh, Jade."

"Hey, what are friends for?" Jade smiled.

* * *

Meanwhile; as the last of the students were loaded onto the buses, Blunk peeked out of some nearby bushes. He quietly crawled around the buses, looking for anything to take that might have some value to trade and sell. He saw the tailpipe on the back of one bus and thought that had some value.

"Hmm, trumpet." Blunk pulled on it, but it wasn't budging. He scowled before spotting a large rock. "Ooh, trumpet remover." He was about to run and get it, but he happened to pass by a bus driver that was about to finish loading the last of the bags and suitcases, when he accidentally grabbed Blunk and threw him into storage compartment, thinking he was another bag before he closed up the compartment and the busses drove off.

However, unknown to the people in the busses, they were being followed. A black car was keeping some distance away from the large student-vehicles as to not arose suspicion. And this car happened to be driven by Hak Foo with Valmont in the passenger seat.

"Don't lose them but keep your distance." Valmont said to his only remaining Enforcer.

"Yes, master." Hak Foo acknowledged as he continued to follow.

But it wasn't just Valmont and Hak Foo following our young heroes and their friends, from a nearby cliffside, Cedric and Wong watched the busses go by before the Dark Chi Wizard threw his hand out to encompass him and Cedric in dark blue smoke before they vanished.

* * *

_Uncle's Rare Finds_

As Uncle and Caleb were still at the Silver Dragon, Tohru worked to clean the dishes in the kitchen at the back of Uncle's shop by himself. Once he was finished, he pulled on the plug on the drain in the sink, to allow the water to drain. However, it didn't appear to work.

Tohru grumbled, thinking it was clogged. He took out a plunger to try and fix the issue. However, a geyser of water suddenly shot out of the sink, knocking Tohru back on the ground and crashing onto the table as the Monkey King, clad in a scuba diver outfit emerged from the sink with an evil chuckle.

"Sumo, ho!"

Tohru gasped. "Not you again!"

"Tell me where your pals are, puny! Or I'll harpoon a whale!" The Monkey King threatened as he transformed his staff into a harpoon.

"Uh… they're gone! Um… far away!" Tohru answered.

The Monkey King leapt onto Tohru's belly. "How far?"

"They… did not say." Tohru lied.

The living prankster puppet made a sound like a buzzer. "Wrong answer!" He spun his body to quickly change into his normal jester outfit before banging on a gong hard to ring Tohru's ears, much to his own elation.

Tohru covered his ears and growled. "That was not funny."

The Monkey King stopped laughing as he glared at Tohru. "I don't amuse you? Not funny? Not funny?! I'm the grand-pupa of ha-ha!" He quickly grabbed Tohru before the large man suddenly found himself strapped to an operating table with the Monkey King now clad in a surgeon's outfit. "Tell me where I can find your pals, or I'll show you 'not funny'!"

Tohru simply looked away in defiance, not willing to say anything.

"Nurse." The Monkey King held out his hand and a feather suddenly appeared. He then pried off both Tohru's shoes as his eyes looked in terror.

"Oh… please! Anything but that!"

The Monkey King proceeded to tickle Tohru's feet with the feather. "Kitchy-kitchy-koo."

"No… No…!" Tohru exclaimed as he began to laugh uncontrollably. "NO!"

* * *

The students and their chaperones had all arrived at the sky chalet and began to unload their bags. As they did, Irma noticed a certain boy looking around with a bottle of hot chocolate.

"Hey Martin." She greeted.

He noticed her presence. "Oh, Hi uh… uh…"

"Irma." She said with lowered eyebrows. "I'm the one you're always bugging?" She reminded.

"Excuse me, I gotta get this hot chocolate to Sondra while it's still hot." Martin said as he walked away, much to Irma's irritation.

Jade then walked up to her "Okay, I'm confused, I thought you _didn't _like that guy."

"He's annoying, but he's not really a _bad _person." Irma commented. "And he at least deserves better than _that _snob."

"Hmm, sounds like true love to me." Jade teased.

"Shut it." Irma grumbled.

Meanwhile, Will had gotten off the bus and saw her crush walking off as well. "Hi Matt!" She waved to him. "Nice to see you made it."

"Yeah, you to." Matt greeted with a friendly smile.

"So maybe you'd like to ski down me? Oh sorry! I meant, ski down _with _me?" Will asked nervously with a small blush.

"Sure, sounds like fun." Matt responded, causing Will's smile to grow even more. However, that smile quickly faded as a certain snob walked onto the scene.

"Oh, there you are Mathew." Sondra said before glancing at Will. "Who's your little friend?"

"It's Will, Sondra. We're in the same history, math, and science classes, remember?" Will reminded, while trying to stay calm.

"Well I can't remember every face." Sondra said arrogantly. "Surely you don't ski on those tiny little legs."

Will was getting somewhat irritated, but she glanced past Sondra and caught a concerning look from Jackie. This helped Will to calm down slightly as she spoke in a calm tone of voice.

"You know what, Sondra? You're not even worth it."

Sondra did not expect a statement like that, nor did many of the other students around the area as the snob dropped her hot chocolate out of shock. "What are you saying?"

"You think I care what you think about me?" Will questioned. "I came to this trip to have fun with my friends, not to advertise myself to virtually every guy in a twenty-mile radius. I don't care what you think or what you do here, I'm gonna have some fun and I'm not about to let a snob like you ruin it for me."

With those words, Will walked off, leaving a speechless Sondra standing in her place. Matt was a bit surprised, but also quite impressed with Will as he smiled in the direction, she walked off in.

Will happened to walk by Jackie and the other girls as they all looked rather impressed themselves.

"Nice." Irma gave a thumbs up.

"Real smooth there, Will." Hay Lin smiled

"Way to stick it to her." Cornelia smirked.

"Yeah, you pretty much owned her." Taranee also smirked.

"Somebody give this girl a microphone to drop." Jade added.

"Thanks guys." Will smiled.

"Well Will, I have to say, I'm quite proud with how well you handled that." Jackie nodded in approval.

"Yeah well, compared to the Forces of Darkness, she's pretty minor league." Will commented.

"Now come on, who wants to get this ski trip started?!" Jade excitedly exclaimed as the girls all cheered, while Jackie simply smiled.

However, no one appeared to notice that as the last of the bags were unloaded off one of the busses' storage compartments, Blunk scurried out before accidentally stumbling off the ledge and falling into a pile of snow.

* * *

"Remember Children." Mrs. Knickerbocker began to instruct several students on a snowy hill. "Stay on the _north_ side of the mountain. Well away from Dead Man's Trail."

"GAINWAY!" Hay Lin screamed as she lost control and looked as though she was about to ski right into Knickerbocker and the other students, but Jackie was quick to jump from one side and flip in the air and grab Hay Lin's shirt, pulling her up and off her crash-course and into a safer spot.

Hay Lin breathed a huge sigh of relief. "Thanks Jackie."

"Your welcome, but you may want to start off on the smaller slopes." Jackie advised.

"Booyah!" Jade exclaimed as she skid past them with little trouble and down the hill. "WAHOO!" She even skid past a downed Taranee and Irma.

"I really admire Jade." Taranee observed. "She doesn't care about boys, or what people think of her…" They also saw Jade wipe out and land in a pile of snow. "Or if she ever walks again."

* * *

Meanwhile; Valmont and Hak Foo continued to watch over all of them from a nearby ledge with a pair of binoculars.

"We should attack now, while their guard is down." Hak Foo stated.

"No." Valmont shook his head. "While our young Will has that crystal, they can transform at any moment. We must wait for an ideal opportunity. They may not have taken my offer to join me, but they will soon learn that they should not have underestimated me!"

* * *

_Later that night_

Jackie sat in his own room as he drank some warm tea, when he heard a knock on his door. "Come in."

Jade walked into the room. "Hey Uncle Jackie, you wouldn't happen to have an extra sweater, scarf, and gloves, would you?"

Jade had led Jackie outside to where she had found Blunk. They had given him some extra warm clothes to help the poor Passling stay warm. "Need… coco…" Blunk shivered.

"Here you go." Jade handed him a bottle of hot chocolate, which Blunk didn't hesitate to grab.

"Why are you even here, Blunk?" Jackie asked.

"Blunk don't know." The Passling rolled his eyes in exhaustion. "Blunk only looking for things to trade. Blunk end up in moving box and bam! Blunk here!"

"Should we bring him inside?" Jade asked her uncle.

"I'd rather not run the risk of anyone else seeing him and starting a panic." Jackie answered. "These clothes and hot chocolate should hold him over for the time being."

The two Chans looked in surprise to see a car pulling up to the lodge as Yan Lin got out of the driver's seat as Uncle did the passenger seat.

"Uncle? Miss Lin? What are you doing here?" Jackie asked.

"He made me drive up to prove a silly point." Yan Lin pointed to Caleb as he got out of the backseat of the car.

"I'm no fun, huh? Well just tell that to my skis!" Caleb brandishes a pair of old wooden skis that looked as if they belonged in an old museum.

"You're kidding, right?" Jade scoffed. "Those things look like the deck-plates on the Titanic."

"But why did you bring Uncle?" Jackie asked Yan Lin.

"I figured Jin could use a break." Yan Lin answered as they all began to walk back towards the lodge.

"Waste of time!" Uncle brushed off. "Uncle too old to ski down mountains!"

"Oh, loosen up Uncle, you could actually learn to have some fun for once." Jade cracked as they walked inside.

Blunk meanwhile watched them enter the lodge and was about to follow them in when a pair of hands emerged from the shadows around him to grab the Passling and pull him into the darkness.

* * *

_The Next Day_

Cornelia, Jade, and Irma were with Caleb at the top of a ski slope as the young rebel leader put on the wooden skis that Yan Lin gave him.

"Alright. Ready to have fun." He adjusted his sunglasses.

"Ten bucks says he wipes out in less than two minutes." Jade cracked to the other two girls.

Caleb went down the slope, and true to Jade's word, he had not only lost control, but the wooden skis fell apart and he wiped out hard on the snow face-first.

"Told ya." Jade smirked with Irma as Cornelia felt a tad bit embarrassed for him.

"Those skis certainly held up better than I thought." Irma commented.

A guy rode up on a snowboard next to the downed Caleb. "Whoa, dude, skis are for losers. You want this." He put an extra snowboard down next to Caleb as he continued to ride down the mountain.

Caleb got up with a smile as he took the snowboard. "Ha, a mummer-board!" He stated as Jade, Cornelia, and Irma skied down closer toward him. "You guys didn't tell me it's like mum-boarding!"

Apparently 'mum-boarding' was just like snowboarding because Caleb rode it like a champ down the slope. He even rode off a ledge and flipped in the air three times before landing smoothly and riding down the slope with a confident smile and hands in his pockets.

Needless to say, all three girls were beyond surprised. "Whoa. Okay, I gotta admit, that's pretty cool." Jade commented.

"Yep, we've underestimated Rebel-boy." Irma agreed.

Cornelia meanwhile couldn't take her eyes off Caleb as she continued to watch him. He honestly looked really cool, and before she knew it, a dreamy smile formed on her face. Jade and Irma both noticed the expression on their blonde friend's face as they exchanged knowing smirks.

* * *

Meanwhile; in a nearby cave, Blunk was thrown on the ground as both Daolon Wong and Cedric loomed over him.

"Hi… looking good…" Blunk greeted nervously.

"This is not the first time we've seen you with Chan and the Guardians, Passling." Wong kneeled to his level. "You must be rather close to them."

Cedric loomed over as well. "You will tell us everything you know about them; particularly the one with red hair."

Blunk chuckled nervously. "Cedric and Wong mean Ethel? Sorry, she in Denmark. Love Cheese." Blunk was about to walk away, but found his way bared by a pair of Shadowkhan that emerged from the shadows as Cedric roared, indicating he was not amused.

Wong glanced at the Shadowkhan minions. "Find them, their exact locations." The Shadowkhan nodded as they disappeared into the shadows. Wong chuckled. "We are on a mountain after all, accidents are bound to happen all the time in a place like this."

* * *

Will tried to steady herself as Matt helped her to stand on her skis. "Okay, you gotta keep your balance." He tried to instruct her. "Shape the skis like a pizza if you want to slow down."

"Okay, yeah I think I got it." Though she blushed a bit as he held her by the shoulders.

"Oh, why are you helping that little girl, Mathew." Both of them glanced at Sondra as she tried to show off some of her long hair. "Wouldn't you prefer to ski down with a real woman?"

Will glared in her direction but tried to ignore her. "No thanks, I think I'm good." Matt said as he got ready himself next to Will, much to Sondra's shock as the two proceeded to ski down the slope.

* * *

Meanwhile; Jackie, Yan Lin, and Hay Lin were near Uncle at the top of a smaller and less-steep slope trying to persuade the elderly man to join them.

"Oh, come on Uncle! We're at the baby-slopes right now!" Hay Lin moaned.

"Does Uncle look like Olympic skier to you? I am too old to slide down mountains!"

Jackie sighed as he put a hand on Hay Lin's shoulder. "Uncle is incredibly stubborn; I feel he is fine where he is."

"Let him be, as for me…" Yan Lin smirked as she put on a pair of sunglasses. "It's time for me to carve some powder!" She wasted on time in skiing down the slope.

"See? Grandma has no problem with it." Hay Lin told Uncle, who merely crossed his arms and looked away.

* * *

However, what nobody noticed was Valmont and Hak Foo watching from a higher point on the mountain, still with a pair of binoculars.

"Now master?" Hak Foo was becoming impatient.

"Almost… we just need the right opportunity." Valmont assured his henchman.

But it wasn't just Valmont and Hak Foo scheming either as at a higher ledge above them, they had failed to notice a pair of Shadowkhan had already spotted the locations of each of the Guardians and Chan Clan. They bowed their heads as a large plum of dark blue smoke arose from the ground, revealing Daolon Wong and Cedric, with Blunk being held by the giant snake's tail.

From their vantage point, Wong and Cedric could see their enemies as clear as day. "Seems we don't need your information, after all." Cedric told Blunk as he threw him into a pile of snow.

"**Gan! Ren! Chui!" **Wong had summoned Finn, Ratso, and Chow, in their Dark Chi Warrior forms; though Ratso and Chow were ready for battle, Finn looked a bit annoyed.

"I'm Finn, he's Ratso, that's Chow. Would it kill you guys to learn our names?" Finn questioned irritably.

"Enough with your squabbles! Prepare for battle!" Daolon Wong told his warriors as he used his scepter to cast a powerful spell of dark magic at the snow around the top of the mountain, causing the entire area to shake and quake as the snow began to fall in the form of a large avalanche.

Though the avalanche passed by the five of them, it caught Valmont and Hak Foo by complete surprise as they were swept up in it and pulled down the mountain as the avalanche began to grow in size and force as it continued to fall.

This caught the attention of all the people at the slope as they began to scream and panic once they saw the massive avalanche.

"Back! Everybody back!" Mrs. Knickerbocker got all her students out of the way as the avalanche rolled past them; however our heroes were not so lucky as Jade, Caleb, Taranee, Cornelia, and Irma were among the first to be swept up in it, followed by Jackie, Hay Lin, Uncle, and Yan Lin, with Uncle shouting 'Aiya!' once it hit. Even Will got separated from Matt at some point as she was caught it in it as well and screamed as the avalanche pulled everyone down the mountain.

After what seemed like an eternity, which was really about three minutes, Jackie's hand popped out of a mound of snow as he pulled himself out and looked around as he rubbed the back of his neck when he heard a moan nearby.

Jackie looked in shock to see a hand sticking out of the snow, which he was quick to grab and pull out, what was revealed to be Will as she shook herself.

"Will, are you okay?" He asked urgently as she tried to regain her senses.

"Yeah… what the heck just happened?" Will questioned.

"An avalanche. We should find the others quickly." Jackie said as they were about to walk away, but Will gasped as she saw shadows from some nearby trees moving toward them.

"Um… Jackie?" She nervously pointed her finger toward the moving shadows, which Jackie also saw as he gasped to see ten Shadowkhan appear in front of them.

"The Shadowkhan!?" Jackie exclaimed.

Will gulped. "Why do I have a feeling that avalanche wasn't an accident?"

"That may not have been an accident." A third voice said as a massive anvil was suddenly dropped on the Shadowkhan, destroying them, much to Will and Jackie's surprise as they glanced up to see the Monkey King descending from the sky on a parachute. "But _that _was!" He laughed as he landed on the anvil's surface.

Jackie was beyond surprised as he recognized the Monkey King instantly, while Will just looked stupefied. "Is… is that… a monkey?"

"Not just any…. That is the Monkey King!" Jackie stated.

"That's right baby!" He spun himself to quickly change into a suit and hairstyle identical to Elvis, complete with a guitar. "The King is back!" He strung his guitar. "Uh-huh. Thank you very much."

"Wait… Monkey King?" Will questioned. "As in that evil puppet guy that turned you into a puppet?! I thought Jade said he was buried in concrete or something!"

"He must have escaped." Jackie assumed.

"Eyup!" The Monkey King confirmed as he was in his normal attire with a stage-hook as he quickly pulled Will in closer toward him. "Ooh Chan, who's this pretty little red-head you got here?"

"Get off me!" Will tried to pull herself away, but Jackie was already on it as he stood protectively in front of her to face the Monkey King directly.

"How did you even know where we were?" Jackie questioned.

"Let's just say… someone you know, _ratted_ you out."

* * *

Meanwhile; Tohru was in a massive rat costume, running on his hands and legs on a hamster-wheel on the roof of Uncle's Rare Finds.

"Stop… stop! Please… Please! Make it stop!" Tohru exclaimed as he sweated up a storm.

* * *

"Um…. And you went to all the trouble to see us… why?" Jackie questioned.

"Let's see, maybe… oh a little something I'd like to call… REVENGE!" The Monkey King quickly donned a sci-fi space suit and pointed two massive sci-fi blasters at the pair.

"So… would this qualify as a… bad day?" Will asked nervously.

"Yes." Jackie confirmed in an equally nervous tone.

* * *

Meanwhile, in an area surrounded by pine-trees, Hay Lin was helping to pull her grandmother out of a pile of snow as Jade did the same for Uncle.

"Grandma, are you okay?!" Hay Lin asked urgently.

"I am fine." Yan Lin assured.

"Man, talk about a snow day." Jade commented.

"This was not a natural occurrence." Yan Lin said. "I fear this avalanche was caused on purpose."

Her instincts proved to be true as the giant form of Cedric emerged from the ground with a roar, gazing down at the four individuals.

"Cedric?!" Jade and Hay Lin exclaimed at the same time.

"Snake-man cause avalanche." Uncle glared at Cedric. "How did you know where to find us?"

"I've been observing you all for quite some time." Cedric hissed. "And if there was a time to remove you all from my side, that time is now…." Cedric's ranting was cut off however by a familiar yell as Hak Foo flew through the air and landed a flying kick in Cedric's face to knock him back down as the Black Tiger landed on the ground gracefully.

"Hak Foo?!" Jade, Hay Lin, Uncle, and even Yan Lin did not expect to see him here as well.

"Do not trouble yourself with a snake, for it is the _Tiger _that is the apex predator!" Hak Foo glared at the four, but quickly jumped to avoid a tail-lashing from Cedric before landing behind the group and faced Cedric.

"Warrior, this is none of your concern! Leave now! You will not interfere!" Cedric warned.

"_You _are the one who is interfering, beast!" Hak Foo shot back. "Chan, the Guardians, and their allies are _mine _to slay! Stand in my way, and you will join them as well!" He took a combat stance as Cedric narrowed his eyes at them.

And while Jade and Hay Lin looked nervous as they were all literally caught in the middle, Yan Lin glared a bit while Uncle was ready for battle.

"So, the Snake-man and Tiger-man want a piece of Uncle?" The elderly Chi-Wizard brandished his trusty blowfish.

* * *

Meanwhile, in an area higher up the mountain, Taranee provided some fire from her palms to illuminate the area where she, Cornelia, Caleb, and Irma, all were as they seemed to be buried underneath the snow.

"Everyone alright?" Caleb asked.

"Define alright." Cornelia grumbled.

"Come on, we gotta find the others." Taranee said. "Irma, help me melt this…" Before they could even think about getting out however, several tendrils made entirely out of dark magic shot through the snow to ensnare each of them and pull them out into the open before throwing them against the ground.

"It would seem our strategy was an effective one." Daolon Wong mused as he and his Dark Chi warriors stood to face the recovering heroes. "Together you are formidable; but divided, you are all but helpless."

"Hey, we're supposed to be on vacation here!" Irma complained. "Is it too much to ask for just a weekend without having to worry about the Forces of Darkness!?"

"Sorry kids, but Phobos has really been riding us to get rid of you." Chow said as he and his friends began to walk toward the group.

"Nothing personal though." Ratso quickly said. "We're actually gonna miss ya."

"Yeah, that doesn't help." Cornelia muttered.

However, before the fight could begin, Finn noticed a mound of snow moving next to them and a muffled grunt, indicating that someone else was with them.

"Hang on guys, we got ourselves a straggler." Finn reached his hand into the snow to pull the person out, but who he pulled out was the one person _nobody _was expecting.

"Get your hands off me!" Valmont stood up straight as he pulled himself up.

"Valmont?!" Irma, Cornelia, Taranee, and Caleb all exclaimed, even Blunk was stunned.

"What the… Big V?!" Finn questioned as he and his friends were surprised to see him here as well.

Despite their newfound appearance, Valmont could easily recognize his old employees. "Finn?! Ratso!? Chow?! What in the world happened to you?!"

"Uh long story Valmont…" Chow said but Ratso was quick to sum it up.

"After that whole auction-thing, we got pulled into another dimension, and now we're enslaved to an evil prince that wants us to kill those fairy girls right there." Ratso pointed to the three Guardians, as well as Caleb.

Valmont could only drag his palm down his face. "This is why we don't work with magic anymore."

"Seriously, are you _still _stalking us?!" Cornelia exclaimed as she and her friends were really getting sick of Valmont's face.

"You really need to get yourself a hobby." Taranee advised.

"Enough!" Wong shouted as he addressed his warriors. "Forget that man, slay the Guardians!" He ordered as the Dark Hand trio brandished their weapons and went on the attack.

* * *

Will took out the Heart of Kandrakar as she stood next to Jacky. **"Guardians…**" The crystal was slapped out of her hands by the Monkey King as he was now clad in a Grim Reaper outfit, with his staff having turned into a scythe.

"Duh, bam, bam! Bum-bu-bum-ba-bum-bu-bum!" The Monkey King hummed the Grim Reaper's theme song as he spun his scythe before swinging it down at the duo, forcing Will and Jackie to scatter.

The Monkey King went straight for Jackie first, swinging his scythe at him, which Jackie was quick to avoid with several flips and back-flips before jumping up a nearby pine-tree, which the Monkey King cut down with his scythe like tissue paper, causing it to fall down with Jackie still hanging on. Will tried to grab the Monkey King from behind but he flipped and grabbed her shoulders with his feet before flipping her over toward a tree just as he threw a pair of bolas from his robe to tie Will to the tree.

Jackie had grabbed a pair of branches and twirled them like batons as he went on the attack, but the Monkey King blocked the attack with the staff of his scythe before twirling and spinning to slam the back end into Jackie's gut and knock him back. The Monkey King then turned his attention back to the tied-up Will.

The red-haired girl looked more than a bit nervous as the Monkey King loomed over her with his scythe. "You know… for someone who's supposed to be the 'King of Comedy'… this is a pretty morbid revenge… don't you think?"

The Monkey King blinked a few times before pulling down his hood. "Sweet simpering simian!" He threw away his entire reaper's robe to reveal a Hawaiian shirt with a Lei around his neck. "You have a point." He put a Lei around Will's neck and one around Jackie's, as he put the Heart of Kandrakar in his pocket before grabbing them both. "We're gonna laugh it up at a luau!"

"But we are on mountain at a ski chalet." Jackie put in.

"I know! Irony makes funny!" The Monkey King stated as he pulled them both away, not noticing Blunk stick his head out of the snow as he held the pulsating Heart of Kandrakar in his hands.

* * *

"Charging Rhino Flattens Serpent!" Hak Foo ran and leapt to deliver a powerful head-butt Cedric's stomach, sending the shapeshifter falling back but he was quick to recover and swing his tail at him, but Hak Foo had leapt onto and wrapped his arms around Cedric's neck. "Boa Constrictor Squeeze!" He tried to squeeze Cedric, but the humanoid serpent grabbed Hak Foo from behind and used his own strength to pry Hak Foo off and send him flying through multiple trees.

Cedric hissed in pain as he was pelted by multiple chi-blasts from Uncle's blowfish. Though the blasts hurt him, they also angered him as he tried to slam his fist down on Uncle who backflipped out of the way to avoid it. Jade and Hay Lin were about to run and help him, only for Hak Foo to land and bard their way.

"You aren't going anywhere." Hak Foo glared mercilessly.

"Hey, we're all fighting the snake guy to you know!" Jade exclaimed.

"Yeah, so maybe we can… you know… team up? Temporary truce?" Hay Lin said nervously.

"No." Hak Foo said simply. He was about to attack when a hand pinched his shoulder-neck area from behind, causing him to fall unconscious face-first, revealing Yan Lin.

"Didn't your mother ever teach you to respect young girls?" She teased the unconscious Black Tiger.

"Whoa, Grandma what was that? Some kind of fancy marital arts technique?" Hay Lin asked as she and Jade looked quite amazed at how easily she incapacitated Hak Foo.

"Nah, the Vulcan Neck Pinch." Yan Lin smiled. "I leaned it form Star Trek."

Hay Lin was simply stunned while Jade smirked. "Hay Lin, have I ever told you how _awesome _your Grandma is?"

They turned their attention back to Uncle's fight against Cedric as he continued to leap and avoid every punch and tail-swipe the massive shapeshifter lashed out at him, only for Uncle to jump completely over Cedric and pelt him more with chi-blasts. Cedric roared at the old man.

"You, insignificant wizard! You cannot stop me!" Cedric exclaimed. "I shall…"

"GAINWAY!"

Everyone looked in shock to see an incoming snowball the size of an evergreen tree roll down the hill quickly with the Monkey King running backwards on top of it as he cackled up a storm. Cedric could only look in shock just before the snow boulder hit him, and the unconscious Hak Foo soon after before it rolled further down the mountain, taking the two all the way down the slope.

"What the…?" Jade questioned but her eyes widened in shock as she saw the one responsible land dramatically in front of them. "The Monkey King!?"

"As in that evil puppet you told us about?!" Hay Lin questioned. "Sure doesn't look like a puppet!"

"How did Monkey King know where to find us?" Uncle questioned as he narrowed his eyes at the mischief maker.

"I tickled-tortured a pal of yours into telling me." The Monkey King then threw a large net which encompassed Jade, Hay Lin, Uncle, and Yan Lin, before he threw them all on a dogsled that came out of nowhere. "And that is only gonna be the opening act to the hilarious payback gig I got in store for you! Now mush!" He whipped the sled-dogs as he took his prisoners up the mountain toward the top.

* * *

Ratso slammed his hammer down onto the snowy ground in front of Cornelia and Caleb as they tried to separate. Ratso then went straight for the recovering Caleb as he swung his mallet at him, but Caleb was quick enough to avoid each of his hits before sweeping his feet to knock Ratso down, however Ratso pulled back one foot and kicked Caleb down before getting back up and raising his hammer to crush him.

"Get off him!" Cornelia leapt onto his back and tried to wrap her arms around his neck, but Ratso tried to shake her off and reach behind, leaving him open for Caleb to deliver a kick to his chest.

Finn swung his bladed weapon towards Taranee who tried to duck and avoid it. As she ducked, she created a small fireball which she threw at Finn's feet to melt the snow, causing him to lose his footing and fall. Taranee then tried to run and gain some distance, but Finn quickly got back up and threw his weapon at the ledge above her, causing a great deal amount of snow to fall down toward her, which she could barely avoid as she rolled out of the way.

Irma found herself backed against a literal wall as Chow tried to swing his staff at her, but she ducked and crawled under his legs before running to get away, but Chow threw his staff out which spun like a helicopter blade to hit her legs, causing her to trip and land face-first in the snow. As she tried to pull herself up, Chow loomed over her with his staff.

"Hey, thirsty?" Irma asked as she generated some water from the snow around her and threw it in Chow's face, disorienting him slightly, and giving her the opportunity to run away.

Daolon Wong watched this with an annoyed sneer. "Imbued with dark magic and transformed into powerful warriors… yet they cannot hope to defeat _children_?!" Wong was ready to blast them all with magic himself, but Valmont suddenly appeared and pulled him by the shoulder, causing him to miss his blast as he glared at the crime lord. "Fool, you shall suffer for your interference!"

"_My _interference?!" Valmont questioned. "_You _transformed my Enforcers into samurai-zombies and reduced me to having to attempt to recruit _teenagers_ into my syndicate!" He grabbed Wong by his robe and pulled him close. "I demand you return Finn, Ratso, and Chow to me at once!"

In direct response, the Dark Chi Wizard blasted Valmont and sent him crashing into a stone wall and was ready to blast him into oblivion. "Why would Daolon Wong, most malevolent of Dark Chi Masters, heed the demands of an insignificant pick-pocket?!"

"Hey!"

Before Wong could even react, all three of the Dark Hand trio's weapons were shot towards him and telekinetically pointed directly at his head as they glared at the wizard.

"Ease-up, sweaty! No one touches Big V with us around." Finn threatened.

"At least Valmont bothered to learn our names." Chow added.

"And he was, sometimes nice to us, unlike you… boss." Ratso glared at Wong.

Wong's shocked look turned into one of rage. "I am not your boss." He used his own magic to make the weapons of his Dark Chi warriors vanish. "I am your _master_!" He blasted them with his dark magic, causing all three Dark Chi Enforcers to holler in pain.

Meanwhile, Taranee, Caleb, Cornelia, and Irma could only look in surprised expressions about what they just saw.

"Did… did Wong's warriors just threaten him?" Caleb asked, not expecting to see something like that happen.

"Well I mean… they did use to work for Valmont and Phobos _did _basically enslave them." Taranee pointed out.

"You know, you kinda have to respect that sort of loyalty." Irma admitted.

"Yeah, let's show them our respect by getting away from here." Cornelia urged as they attempted to sneak off.

Suddenly, the snow underneath them to fall and open revealing a massive jack-in-the-box that opened up to reveal the Monkey King, with his bottom half being that of a spring as he wrapped all four of them in a bear-hug with a cackle before pulling them down into his jack-in-the-box that quickly vanished; much to the surprise of Wong as he finished punishing his Dark Chi Enforcers, who vanished once he was done.

Using this surprise, Valmont attempted to make a tactical retreat, only for him to slip and fall down a ledge, where the crime lord comically screamed as he slid down the slope and rolled in the snow, building it all around him like a giant snowball that continued to roll down the mountain.

* * *

The Monkey King danced at the summit of Mount Heatherfield, the hole leading to the innards of the dormant volcano just behind him as he was dressed like a fire dancer and spun two staffs with flames at the end all the while the heroes were tied to magically rotating sticks over several fire-places. Will and Jackie were tied on one, Jade and Hay Lin, Uncle and Yan Lin, Irma and Cornelia, Taranee and Caleb.

"So, this is the Monkey King?" Cornelia asked as they all continued to rotate.

"He looks look more like a court jester than a king." Caleb observed.

"He refers to himself as the 'king of comedy'." Jackie gave a quick explanation.

"Yeah he's supposed to be funny." Jade commented with lowered eyelids.

"What part of him eating us is funny?!" Taranee exclaimed.

"I do not believe he intends to eat us, more to roast us alive." Yan Lin said.

"Not helping Grandma!" Hay Lin exclaimed frightfully.

"Hey uh… Will? Maybe you could Guardian us up?" Irma asked nervously.

"I can't. I lost the Heart." Will looked down but looked in surprise along with Jackie to see Blunk tunnel his way out of the snow underneath them.

"Blunk?!" Nearly everyone exclaimed out of shock.

"Girls loose Heart, but Blunk find it." The Passling presented the Heart of Kandrakar to them, much to their elated surprise.

"Blunk you are a life-saver! Literally!" Jade exclaimed with a wide grin.

Blunk smiled as he put the crystal in Will's hand, and she said the magic words. **"Guardians Unite!" **

The Monkey King stopped his dancing as he looked in actual surprise at the flash of pink light. When the light vanished; Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin had not only transformed into WITCH, but Jackie, Jade, Uncle, Caleb, and Yan Lin had also been freed as all ten of them faced the Monkey King.

"Ooh this a surprise. Little fairies decide to crash my party!" The Monkey King rubbed his palms together with an eager grin.

"I've had enough monkey business for one day. Let's get him!" Will exclaimed as they all charged in.

Taranee was the first to attack with a series of fireballs, but the Monkey King pulled out a fire-extinguisher which he blasted out like a hose that not only extinguished Taranee's attack, but also hit Taranee in the air and sent her crashing into the ground. Suddenly, multiple vines shot out of the ground and entangled the Monkey King, curtsey of Cornelia.

"Somebody call a gardener?" The Monkey King cracked as he pulled out a weedwhacker and cut away at the vines before jumping at Cornelia and swing his weapon at her, which she ducked to avoid. As he tried to swing it down on her again, Caleb suddenly appeared and used a rock to smash the blades before trying to punch the Monkey King, but he flipped backwards, while smacking his feet into Caleb's chin and sending him crashing into Cornelia.

Irma flew above the Monkey King as she thrusted her hands together to create a large douse of water to try and hit the mischief maker, but he actually jumped on it and began to ride on it with a surfboard. "Surf's up!" He cracked as he used his own magic to redirect the water stream back up to Irma, which he rode on with his surfboard before slamming his board right into the face of the shocked Irma, sending her crashing towards Yan Lin.

As the Monkey King landed, he was greeted with a flying punch from Will, but he backflipped in the air, and landed in a karate uniform as he brandished his staff and made a hand-gesture to bring it on. Will, along with Jackie and Jade attempted to charge the Monkey King with a series of punches and kicks, but he was quick enough to block and parry all three of them with his staff before spinning it like a helicopter-blade and slammed it across all three of their faces and knock them down simultaneously.

"It was my honor to defeat you." The Monkey King mocked in a fake-karate voice before laughing.

Hay Lin tried to create a tornado around him with her air powers as she flew above the villain, but the Monkey King pulled out a pogo-stick and used it to jump up to Hay Lin's height where he quipped his fist into a boxing glove and punched Hay Lin in the face to knock her down closer to Uncle as he tried to blast the Monkey King with a chi-blast from his blow, fish but he leapt backwards to avoid it.

"Hey Uncle, can't you use your magic to turn him back into a puppet?" Hay Lin asked as Blunk tried to help her up, before she received a dope-slap from Uncle. "Ow!"

"With what spell? Uncle did not do research on the Monkey King! No time to prepare!" The old man protested.

Everyone regrouped as they faced the Monkey King again. "This is ridiculous, we didn't even land a single punch on this guy!" Cornelia complained.

"Of course, it's ridiculous Blondie. Comedy and humor are sort of my thing, ya know?" The Monkey King reminded.

"Comedy? I don't see anything funny about you at all." Caleb commented.

"Agreed. I do not think he is so funny." Uncle said as well.

"Oooh, that hurts." The Monkey King feigned a hurtful expression. "But, you guys are gonna _love _my next punchline, cause I'm gonna make Mount Heatherfield here blow sky high!"

"Wait... he's gonna blow the mountain?!" Will exclaimed out of shock.

"No, he can't. The Monkey King can do a lot of things, but he can't activate a volcano." Yan Lin said.

"Yeah, and this volcano has been dormant for years. He couldn't trigger it even if he tried." Taranee added.

"Just watch me, four-eyes!" The Monkey King inched to her face before flipping backwards towards the hole that served as the mouth to the dormant volcano. "I know a family recipe." He had a chef's hat as he pulled out supplies from his bag and read the list of ingredients aloud. "Magic monkey syrup, pure cane sugar, one carton of aged goat milk, an untuned Hawaiian guitar, fine-tuned tuning fork, a tuna on rye, hold the mayo…"

Suddenly, the ground behind the Monkey King burst open as Cedric emerged, much to the surprise of the Guardians and Chan Clan as the large shapeshifter grabbed the Monkey King.

"Interfering primate! You will not meddle in our affairs!" Cedric warned, but the Monkey King slapped his large hand away.

"Paws off the fur, Scales! I'm busy here!" The Monkey King protested. Cedric however roared as he lunged his massive fist at the Monkey King who back flipped to avoid it.

"Uh… maybe we should let them fight amongst themselves." Irma suggested.

"Good idea." Jackie agreed as everyone else tried to sneak away.

Cedric grabbed the Monkey King and pinned him to the ground. "And to the winner!" The Monkey King announced as he shoved a cream pie into Cedric's face, letting the Monkey King escape from his grip, but Cedric shook the cream off his face as he used his tail to grab the Monkey King by his foot and hang him upside down as they continued their struggle.

"Huh, never thought I'd actually be rooting for Cedric of all people." Jade commented as they were about to get away.

However, as the Guardians, Chan Clan, and even Blunk, attempted to sneak away, Daolon Wong suddenly appeared in a plum of blue smoke in front of them. They didn't even get a chance to react as Wong used his magic to quickly ensnare all eleven of them and liquify the ground underneath them, trapping them from the neck-down, before the ground solidified.

"On second thought, go Monkey King." Jade's eyelids lowered.

That actually caught Wong's attention. "Monkey King?" He turned around to see said mischief maker actually knock down Cedric with a boxing-glove punch to the face before he faced the Dark Chi Wizard. "Ah, I should have recognized the antics of the famed prankster puppet made flesh."

"And I got a payback gig with an exploding volcano finale that you and your reptilian friend over there are messing up!" The Monkey King complained, pointing back to the recovering Cedric.

"So, why do I see no lava?" Daolon Wong questioned with a chuckle.

The Monkey King looked in surprise as he saw that his spell had not even activated yet. He checked over his recipe before gasping as he was missing one key ingredient. "I'm still three pounds of wood short of a gusher!"

"Then for your lousy spell making, you shall return to wood." Wong mocked as he cast his dark magic from his scepter to drain the life out of the Monkey King.

"EVERYBODY'S A CRITIC!" The Monkey King screamed before he was turned back into a puppet and fell to the ground, completely lifeless.

* * *

"Come on buddy, say something pal. Anything." One of the Construction workers who dug up the Monkey King tried to move the puppet of his friend, but the spell had worn off and he had turned back to normal.

"Get your hand out of my shirt, Mac."

* * *

Wong and Cedric looked down amusingly at the puppet. "Now that the pest has been removed, it is time for…" Cedric's ranting was cut off as the ground suddenly exploded; due to Cornelia's earth-powers and the heroes were all free as Taranee, Cornelia, Hay Lin, and Irma readied their respective elemental powers while Jackie, Will, Jade, Uncle, Caleb, and even Yan Lin made martial art stances as Blunk clung to Jackie's back.

"You guys wanna go? Well, let's go!" Jade challenged as they were all ready for a fight.

Cedric glared at the heroes with Daolon Wong, but the humanoid serpent's eye drew towards the Monkey King puppet as he sneered evilly. "Wong, what was it the Monkey King needed to finish his spell, again?"

"Three pounds of wood. But what…" Wong glanced at the puppet himself as he smirked evilly as well.

Cedric batted his tail to knock the puppet directly into the mouth of the volcano, where it fell to meet the lava that was already built up by the Monkey King's previous ingredients. The second it made contact, the doll began to glow, and the lava began to quickly boil as the ground began to shake.

"Did… did they just…" Hay Lin stuttered.

"Activate the volcano? I'm pretty sure they did." Taranee answered in a meek tone.

"Goodbye Guardians, Jackie Chan; we shall not meet again." Cedric sneered as Wong used his magic to teleport himself and Cedric away from the area as the ground shook up even more.

"Everybody in the air! Now!" Jackie exclaimed as Will grabbed onto Jackie and took to the skies with Blunk clinging to him. Hay Lin grabbed her grandmother, Irma grabbed Jade, Cornelia took Caleb, and Taranee took Uncle just as the mouth exploded and sent a stream of lava straight into the air, higher than the Guardians could fly over in time with their passengers.

"Hot-Cha!" Uncle exclaimed as everyone else screamed before the wave of lava engulfed them and everything else within a small radius. But the lava suddenly stopped and didn't even make it five feet down the mountain. Nor was it even boiling hot as everyone stuck their heads out of the 'lava', and they were completely fine. "Cha is not so hot." Uncle said in confusion.

"Shouldn't we be burnt alive or something?" Caleb questioned. "This lava isn't even hot."

Everyone was beyond confused, even as Blunk chewed some of the 'lava' in his mouth and smiled. "Oooh, lava tastes good."

"Probably because it isn't lava at all." Yan Lin said.

Hay Lin was among the first to pick up a piece and plop into her mouth out of curiosity before her eyes widened and she smiled. "Hey, it's cherry gelatin!"

Irma tried some herself. "I'll be danged, it is!"

Taranee gave a huge sigh as she fell back. "I'm not even gonna _try _to think about the logic in this. Or rather, the lack of thereof."

"I'm just glad we're not burnt alive." Cornelia muttered. "But this stuff is gonna be a pain to get out of my hair." She tried to pull the sticky substance out of her hair.

"Okay, I gotta admit, this was actually pretty funny." Will snickered.

"Yeah, mostly cause the bad guys' plan backfired." Jade snickered as well as she and Will exchanged a high-five.

Jackie smiled as he noticed the Monkey King puppet incased in the gelatin right next to him. "It looks like the last laugh is on the Monkey King."

* * *

_Later that evening_

All the students met up at the lodge where everyone was staying as Mrs. Knickerbocker did a head count, all students and chaperones were accounted for and unharmed, save for Sondra who appeared to have sprained her leg slightly in the avalanche.

A few guys tried to help her injured leg up on the coach. "Ow! Careful you doofs! That hurts!" However, she and everyone else gasped as her accent had appeared to have changed. She no longer carried the fake Swedish voice but sounded like a typical girl from the States.

"Did you guys hear that?" Matt asked everyone with a slight glaring expression.

Jade smirked. "Your ankle might be sprained, but I think your 'accent' is broken, _Miss Swiss_."

Sondra winced as Hay Lin looked at her sweater and saw the tag. "Dry-clean only. Grandma's goat-hair, huh?"

"Yeah we should get you to the _bol'nitsa_." Taranee said.

"And what does that mean?" Sondra questioned.

"Hospital." Taranee answered. "You said you spoke Russian. Oh, and by the way, no cashmere goats in Switzerland, unless you're from the Himalayas as well."

Sondra scowled. "Oh, who cares? As soon as I reach my parents, I'm switching schools anyway. So, I don't have some dumb accent, so what?" Most of the students began to walk away.

"What a total looser." Elyon commented as most of the group left the room.

"Desperate for attention, much?" Alchemy added.

"No duh!" Cornelia added. "Pretending to be all 'Miss Fascinating-Swiss-person'."

Irma looked annoyed to see some guys, including Martin, still surrounding Sondra. "Weren't you listening?! She's a fake!"

"But her face and shinning lustrous hair are oh-so-real." Martin said in an enamored tone, much to Irma's irritation.

Jade patted Irma on the back. "Don't worry, she'll be out of our hair in a week at the latest, then you'll have your stalker back."

"Not funny Jade." Irma's eyelids lowered.

As Will walked down the hall as she heard Matt calling her name from behind. "Hey Will." She turned to see his concerned expression. "I'm glad you're alright. Kinda lost sight of you after that whole avalanche-thing."

"Yeah, I'm okay don't worry." Will assured.

Matt smiled as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Some exciting ski trip, huh?"

"You have no idea." Will commented.

They both chuckled slightly as Matt spoke. "So, when we get back, maybe you wanna… hang out sometime?"

Will tried her best to contain her excitement as she smiled. "Sure, sounds like fun!" She reached into her pocket to pull out a bag of a familiar red substance. "Cherry gelatin?"

Matt laughed a bit but accepted it none-the-less.

* * *

Soon after; the six girls all met up with Jackie, Caleb, Uncle, and Yan Lin outside the lodge to meet Captain Black as Jackie handed him a plastic box with the Monkey King puppet inside, still incased in gelatin.

"I'll make sure this is locked in the vault back at Section 13." Captain Black assured.

"Thank you." Jackie nodded. "Any sign of Valmont?"

"No, we searched the entire area. He's gone." Captain Black answered.

"The guy knows where we all live." Taranee commented. "I know he's no Phobos or anything, but still…"

"Don't worry, I already have agents watching each of your residences." Captain Black told them. "If Valmont so much as sneezes in your families' direction, we'll be there with some tissue and a pair of handcuffs."

"Thanks Captain Black." Irma thanked.

"And what about our _other _problem?" Cornelia asked as Will used the Heart of Kandrakar on the map.

"There are no portals nearby." The red-head leader of the Guardians reported.

"Meaning they didn't come here from Meridian." Caleb said.

"Nor have they _returned_ to Meridian either." Uncle added.

"So, where _did _they go?" Hay Lin asked.

"In all likely hood, back to Heatherfield." Yan Lin assumed. "Cedric is still in hiding there, waiting to locate the missing princess."

"So, we'll just have to find her first." Jade stated.

"Easier said than done." Will commented.

"Yes, our mission is still far from over." Jackie said.

* * *

_Heatherfield – Bookstore_

The bookstore that served as the cover for Cedric was closed and empty as Daolon Wong and Cedric, in his disguise as Rick Hoffman, appeared via the dark magic of Wong.

"The Guardians and Chan still live. Prince Phobos will not be pleased." Cedric said in an annoyed hiss.

"So long as we remain in the shadows, we still have a chance to locate the heir first." Wong said. "Soon, darkness will begin its reign."

Meanwhile, as the two continued to plot, neither of them noticed a black car driving past the bookstore, driven by none other than Hak Foo as Valmont sat in the passenger seat, with a blanket wrapped around him, as he shivered with a cold and held a cup of hot chocolate in his hands.

"It would seem… we must recruit… new Enforcers." Valmont shivered. "But I swear… the Dark Hand… _will _rise again!" He vowed before he sneezed.

**Done.**

**Well, that was fun! One big battle royale between the Chan Clan and WITCH against Cedric and Wong, Hak Foo and Valmont, and even the Monkey King! I hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. **

**So, Valmont is not only aware of the girls' identities, he knows their residency as well, but he's not going to target their families or anything as they are being protected by Section 13, but Valmont is going to be looking for new Enforcers, and he will get some. I'm not saying who however, but you will see in the chapter after the next one. **

**Also, I'm sure that many of you have noticed Will maturing a bit more in my series as in the cannon show, she made a bet with that snob Sondra about sitting next to Matt on the bus, but here, she just simply ignored the girl and didn't give her any attention whatsoever. So it seems like that Jackie is already having a positive influence on not just Will, but some of the other girls as well. What's going to happen next for our group of heroes? Find out next time on J-WITCH! **


	10. A Dramatic Ambush

**Hi everyone, thanks again for waiting. This is one particular chapter, that I will honestly say I'm not one hundred percent excited for; I wouldn't say the episode from the WITCH show was bad, it just felt like something of a filler to introduce some elements later in the plot. But I plan to mix things up a little bit with certain JCA elements just to make things more interesting, particularly as we look at the origins of the Heart of Kandrakar. So, without further delay, let us begin. **

**A Dramatic Ambush **

Within the forests of Meridian, a supply of food and supplies was being escorted toward the castle. However, what they didn't realize was that they were being watched.

"Now!" Caleb exclaimed as the Rebels' trap was sprung. They cut some ropes that held several logs suspended, letting them fall in front and behind the enemy party, effectively trapping them. They also cut several more, which swung multiple logs down to knock the guards off their steeds.

"Their down! Move!" One rebel shouted.

"Wait! Hold on!" Caleb stopped them from advancing, and that proved to be a wise decision as several shadows around the downed guards and their steeds moved and materialized to form a group of five Shadowkhan which quickly sent out multiple shuriken towards the hidden rebels who were forced to take cover.

"Archers! Go!" Caleb ordered as several archers in the trees shot multiple arrows at the Shadowkhan, two were hit and disappeared on contact, but the remaining three simply dodged and evaded the arrows. However, as they were distracted, Caleb and the other rebels ran in to cut down the Shadowkhan with their own weapons, defeating them quickly.

* * *

At the same time, in the Castletown, another supply was being escorted through the streets toward the castle. However, Aldarn quickly jumped in front of the escorting guards.

"Down with Phobos and with tyranny!" He exclaimed before running away.

"Hey!" Two guards gave pursuit on their rhino-like steeds. However, this cut the guards surrounding the supply in half as the remaining two were quickly and quietly knocked out by a couple of rebels that slipped out of the alleyway.

Aldarn ran with the guards right on his heels, he turned down one alleyway and continued to run, however before the enemy guards could catch up to him, a pair of rebels dropped a large net over them to trap them and their steeds. While they were caught off guard, the two rebels jumped down to knock them out with blunt weapons to the heads.

"Yeah! We got em!" One rebel cheered.

"Wait!" Aldarn quickly drew his sword as two shadows materialized behind him and were about to form a pair of Shadowkhan, but he was quick to cut them down right before they fully formed. The two rebels looked in surprise. "Shadowkhan, always watch out for dark alleys." He explained to them.

* * *

The supplies were all brought to the Infinite City by Caleb and Aldarn's teams and were presented to all the rebel troops as well as their families that were hiding there.

"Food for everyone!" Caleb exclaimed as all the rebels helped themselves to the food they caught, even Blunk didn't hesitate to grab an apple. "This was one victory; we need many more if we're going to turn the tide to our oppressors! Eat well tonight!"

As Caleb got down, his friend approached him. "Hey Caleb, do you have any more of that chocolate from Earth? You know, for the little ones?" Aldarn asked.

"I'll return tomorrow."

* * *

_Phobos Throne Room_

"What went wrong?" Phobos growled as Daolon Wong and Cedric reported to him of the ambushes.

"They knew our routes." Cedric informed. "They were even aware of the Shadowkhan escorts."

"And here I thought those 'minions of darkness' were stronger." Phobos narrowed his eyes towards Wong.

"The Shadowkhan are indeed skilled fighters. They possess no will of their own, making them easy to control." Wong explained. "However, this also serves as a weakness as they are unable to think on their own and can be defeated if caught off guard. In addition, they as well as our own forces are spread too thin between the Rebellion in Meridian, as well as Chan and the Guardians on Earth."

Phobos stood up from his throne and walked down as he gazed out the window. "Our movements are anticipated, our supply routes intercepted, there is a spy in my castle!" His angered look faded slightly. "Which would mean… Raythor was innocent…"

"Or more likely wasn't working alone." Wong assumed.

"Tell me then how I may find the spy, or I will cast both of you into the Abyss of Shadows as well!" Phobos exclaimed impatiently.

"Spread a rumor." Cedric proposed. "Pretend that something extraordinary has been found by one who doesn't know its value. If a rebel comes looking, not only do we trap him, your suspicions are confirmed."

Phobos saw that this was a rather brilliant idea and decided to use it. "Good. And I know just the object to lure their leader into the open."

* * *

_Earth - Heatherfield_

It was rather early as Jackie climbed a fire escape up to a roof's building with Will and Jade right behind him. Irma, and Hay Lin weren't that far behind, though Cornelia and Taranee appeared to be struggling.

"Ugh, can't we just transform and fly up?" Cornelia groaned.

"We can't risk being seen just because you decided to wear heels today." Will told the blonde.

"Come on guys, look at the bright side. This is a good workout." Jade said. "I'm barley even breaking a sweat."

"That's because you're more used to fighting the Forces of Darkness." Irma deadpanned.

Taranee yawned as she tried to catch up. "It's way too early for this."

"I know and I'm sorry." Jackie said sincerely. "But once were done here, I will treat you all to a pancake breakfast, on me."

That seemed to lift all their spirits. "Pancakes?! Awesome!" Hay Lin cheered.

"And hey, we'll even swing for a box of doughnuts while we're at it!" Jade said with a grin.

"Pancakes _and _doughnuts?! Now you're talking!" Irma grinned as well.

"Oh, now you guys are just _trying_ to make me fat, aren't you?" Cornelia grumbled.

"Yeah, well considering were fighting monsters on a periodic basis, I say we can afford the calories." Will pointed out as they were almost at the rooftop.

However, just before they made it to the roof, the portal surged as Caleb and Blunk passed through from Meridian into Earth.

"Captain Blunk report!" The Passling saluted like a soldier.

"Don't pretend you have an allegiance to a higher goal." Caleb told Blunk. "You find me portals, I pay you." Blunk however looked in shock past Caleb, causing the young rebel to look in the same direction who also looked in shock to see Jackie, Jade, Will, Taranee, Cornelia, Hay Lin, and Irma looking at him with disappointed looks and crossed arms.

"Oh um… hey girls… and Jackie." Caleb waved nervously.

"Caleb, if you find an open portal you are supposed to tell us." Jackie said disappointingly.

"And normally that'd be what I'd do, but I just need this one open for a little while longer." Caleb said. "Just like five minutes, I'm taking chocolate back to little children."

Some of their expressions softened a bit once they heard that. "Well I mean, they kinda are suffering under a royal nutjob…" Jade pointed out.

Jackie sighed. "Caleb, I can understand what you are saying. But we can't run the risk of Phobos' forces entering Earth. If this were a life-or-death situation, we would make an exception. Otherwise, I'm sorry. Will?"

"I'm on it." Will held out the Heart of Kandrakar and used its magic to close the portal, causing Caleb to sigh in disappointment.

"Hey rebel boy, next time we're in Meridian, we'll be sure to bring some candy for those kids, sound good?" Cornelia proposed with a smile, causing Caleb to look up slightly.

"Yeah, sounds good."

* * *

_Later that day - Sheffield Institute_

Jade, Will, Irma, Cornelia, and Taranee were having lunch in the cafeteria when Will noticed a poster on the wall.

"Hey, what's that poster over there?" The red head asked.

Irma, Cornelia, and Taranee groaned. "Whoa, what crawled up your skin and died?" Jade asked upon seeing their annoyed expressions.

"Drama night." Irma groaned in annoyance.

"Every year, four groups of kids… Oh I'm sorry, _losers _put on these mini-plays on a theme." Cornelia explained.

"All the parents and grandparents come." Taranee added. "It's a whole big looser-thing."

"More like a lame-fest." Cornelia said.

"Well, then I guess it's good we didn't sign up for it." Jade said.

Hay Lin suddenly ran up to the table. "Great news!" She exclaimed excitedly. "I signed us up to do a play for drama-night!"

* * *

_Section 13_

Jackie sat in Captain Black's office as they went over all the data Section 13 collected, specifically over teenage girls living in Heatherfield.

"I'm sorry Jackie; but we searched through all the birth records." Captain Black explained. "Anyone who wasn't born in this city, either moved here or was adopted, don't match any physical descriptions that could bear a resemblance to this Phobos-guy. Whoever brought this princess to Heatherfield, did an excellent job covering their tracks"

Jackie sighed. "Then we'll just have to find the spy Phobos has sent to Earth first, before he finds the heir."

"Perhaps I can help."

Jackie looked in surprise to see a certain reformed thief enter the office. "Viper? What are you doing here?"

"I work here, part-time." Viper explained.

"She works as a freelance security consultant, but whenever I need assistance regarding her former territory with master thieves, she helps to provide intel." Captain Black explained as well.

"So, how's the babysitting coming along with Jade and those other girls?" Viper teased.

"Oh, it's not babysitting, but they're all doing very well." Jackie acknowledged. "I'm sure they'd be happy to see you again."

"So, what do you need help with?" Viper asked.

"A magic shapeshifter from Meridian is somewhere in Heatherfield." Jackie explained. "Lord Cedric."

"Aw, that giant snake guy. Yeah I remember him." Viper recalled.

"We have yet to find any leads without his physical description." Captain Black said. "Apparently, he can only take on the form of a human with a specific face; hair and eye color remain the same."

"But… I think I have an idea where to look." Jackie began. "A new bookstore opened up recently and… it was built over an inversion point. According to Uncle and Miss Lin, it is an area where the border between our world and Meridian is at its weakest. The girls and I were accidentally pulled into Meridian from that store, but not just in Meridian, we were in Phobos' personal library."

"Alright, either the store was built there incidentally, or it's really where our little shapeshifter is hiding." Viper deduced. "It would be the perfect place for him to cross over without making any noise."

"But without any evidence we can't just barge in." Captain Black said. "But I can have it placed under surveillance and see what we can find."

"Well, we at least have a lead now." Jackie deduced as they really had no idea just how close they were to the jackpot.

* * *

_Meridian – Phobos Castle_

"**Gan! Ren! Chui!" **

Wong had summoned the Dark Hand trio as they materialized near the new Captain of the Guard, Lothar and a few other guards.

"Yo, what's going on?" Finn asked as they looked up to see Daolon Wong and Cedric.

"Dark Chi Warriors, Captain Lothar, I have remarkable news." Cedric said to the group. "The Seal of Phobos has been found."

That earned a gasp from Lothar and the guards. "The Seal? After all these years…"

"Uh, someone wanna clue us in here?" Chow asked.

"Seal of… does Phobos wanna lock something up or something?" Ratso wondered.

"The Seal of Phobos…" Daolon Wong began to explain. "Is a sacred artifact that can open any and all things; be they locked physically or magically. It can even open portals in the Veil."

"Whoa." Ratso awed as he, Finn, and Chow were quite surprised.

"Yeah… I can see why Princey would want to get his hands on that." Finn said.

"It was near the outpost at Torus Filney, I want one hundred riders in three days' time to bring it back safely to the Castle." Cedric ordered.

"What we have just told you now, must be kept secret." Wong told them with a sneer on his face.

However, just as the two had planned, word quickly spread amongst the other guards and soldiers. Finn, Ratso, and Chow were given some free reign, with Wong telling them they could use a 'break', however this was all part of the plan as Wong and Cedric anticipated they would help spread the rumor, which worked. It spread to the kitchen workers and other servants as well, until finally it made it to Vathek, who did his best to try and sneak out discreetly and find a way to inform the Rebels, without drawing attention of the Shadowkhan Caleb told him would be lurking in the shadows of the castle.

* * *

_Earth – Uncle's Rare Finds_

"Viper!" Jade exclaimed as she ran to give the older woman a hug, who was happy to return it.

"Good to see you to Jade." Viper smiled. "And you kids too."

"Hi Viper!" Hay Lin waved with a smile while Will, Cornelia, Irma, and Taranee just waved. Though they were happy to see her, they were still a bit upset about Hay Lin signing them up for Drama Night.

"Okay, what's gotten into _them_?" Viper asked Jade.

Jade sighed. "Little miss spunky over there signed us up for a school drama night."

"Oh, you're in a play? I had no idea." Jackie said in surprise at first before it turned into a smile.

"Yeah, neither did we." Irma groaned.

"She signed us up without even asking us first." Taranee cast a slight glare at Hay Lin.

The energetic girl winced apologetically. "Sorry, I just got so excited I wrote our names down without even thinking."

"Why'd you even sign us up for Drama Night anyway?" Cornelia questioned.

"So, I can design the cool costumes! And also, because I need somebody to be _in _them." Hay Lin answered

"Well this could be a good experience for all of you." Jackie said. "I performed in plays during my time at school, and I enjoyed it. Even Uncle was part of an opera troupe in his youth."

"Whoa, seriously?" Will looked in honest surprise.

"I cannot picture that. OW!" Cornelia felt her forehead as Uncle suddenly appeared to deliver a dope-slap.

"Do not disrespect Uncle's youth!" The old chi-wizard scolded.

"So, what play are you doing?" Viper asked curiously.

"Oh, we get to make up our own around a theme." Hay Lin explained. "Our theme is mythology."

Jackie smiled slightly. "Well, seeing that I'm an archeologist, I know more than my fair share of myths that could you could use."

"You got any cool ones?" Jade questioned. "Cause, I don't wanna do any lame princess thing." Jackie sighed slightly in response.

Tohru walked into the main shop from the back along with Yan Lin. "Oh Tohru, Grandma, do you guys know any cool myths we can use?" Hay Lin asked.

"Um… I don't know about myths, but I know a few stories centered around…" Tohru then shivered as he remembered the stories of the Oni his mother used to tell him as a child, causing him to gulp. "On second thought, no I don't."

The group looked a bit curiously at Tohru for a moment before Yan Lin spoke. "I know of a myth that I'm sure you would all be interested in hearing, even you Jackie as it includes a certain dragon you and Jade are all too familiar with."

That got Jackie's attention as he had a surprised yet serious expression on his face. "Shendu."

Now everyone was listening; Uncle, Viper, Jade, and Tohru especially. While Will, Irma, Hay Lin, Cornelia, and Taranee only heard the stories of what Jade has told them, they were still interested in hearing a story from Yan Lin as well.

* * *

"_Over nine hundred years ago, the Fire Demon known as Shendu ruled over the land of what would later be called China." _

The dreaded demon Shendu stood at the top of a mountain overlooking the fast landscape. He was massive to say the least; a giant humanoid dragon with dark goldish-green skin and piercing red eyes. He gave a roar as he pointed to the landscape and an army of dragons flew out from behind him.

"_Shendu had at his command an army of dragons that served his every whim." _The dragons attacked the land, burning everything in their path from forests, to wildlife, even homes owned by people who ran for their lives at the sight of the massive dragon army. _"However, while most of these dragons served Shendu faithfully, there were four among them who grew weary of the oppressive ways of their so-called master. And these dragons were among the strongest of his army, yet ironically, the gentlest."_

Four larger dragons; one red, one yellow, one white, and one black, only hovered in the air as they did not take part in the destruction yet made no effort to stop it either.

"_Though they did not approve of Shendu's violence, they knew they could not oppose him as in addition to the demon's own dark powers, he also wielded the combined magics of the Chinese Zodiac. It seemed Shendu's reign of darkness was all but cemented."_

However, it wasn't just the four noble dragons who watched with reluctance as Shendu's palace was built by the human slaves and he sat with an evil sneer on his throne. From the distance, a beautiful woman with fair skin, black hair, and pointy ears looked towards the land with great sympathy and worry.

"_And it was not just the noble dragons that disapproved of Shendu's reign. A Nymph by the name of Xin Jing grew worried for the people as the Fire Demon had used his magics to cast a cursed famine upon the land to keep the people under his thumb. The people could grow only what they needed to survive, nothing more."_

As Xin Jing watched the people barley scrape by, she soon approached the four noble dragons and pleaded with them.

"_Xin Jing pleaded with the noble dragons and begged them to help her in assisting these poor people. They agreed to assist her, as they too felt pity for the people."_ The red and yellow dragons used their fire breath to boil the water from the ocean, while the black and white ones flapped their wings to help the water vapor lift to the skies. _"As the dragons brought the rain, Xin Jing herself used her own magics to put an end to the curse placed on the valley." _Xin Jing shot a wave of pink energy from her hands that spread over the valley and blew away all the dark magic that was sewn into the earth just as the rain clouds formed. Rain fell over the valley and the people celebrated as the drought had ended.

However, as the four noble dragons and Xin Jing watched with smiles as the people could finally grow food, the Nymph was caught off guard as four large fireballs blasted each of the noble dragons out of the air and crashing into the ground. They lifted their heads to see an angered Shendu land on the ground in front of them.

"_But Shendu was enraged. How dare the Dragons defy him!? How dare they assist humans, creatures he deemed inferior?!" _Shendu lunged his hands forward as each of the noble dragons were telekinetically lifted into the air. _"Deeming them as traitors, Shendu sealed them into four mountains." _Shendu literally threw each dragon into one mountain, where he used his own dark magics to seal each one inside each mountain. _"There they can only watch as Shendu destroyed the valley, leaving no survivors."_

The people all ran in terror as Shendu unleashed waves of fire and heat-beams from his eyes all over the valley. Xin Jing watched from a distance in absolute terror as she covered her mouth with both her hands and fell to her knees, tears flowing down from her eyes. By the time the carnage was over; the valley was nothing more than a barren wasteland, with only skeletons lined across the ground. Xin Jing wouldn't have time to morn as Shendu suddenly landed behind her.

"_Though Shendu was enraged by the Nymph's defiance, he recognized her incredible magic powers and demanded that she submit to him. But she refused."_

"Your cruelty is equal only to your arrogance!" Xin Jing exclaimed in defiance. Even in the presence of such a terrifying evil, she would not bow to him.

"_In an act of noble defiance, Xin Jing cast a powerful spell that would cost her and the dragons' their mortal forms." _Xin Jing's body glowed a bright pink as her body was enveloped in the glow, as each of the dragons sealed away glowed red, blue, green, and white respectively. All their bodies had transformed into elemental energy as they flew into the sky and combined in a bright pink flash of light. Shendu covered his eyes, but when he opened them, he saw nothing. He gave a frustrated roar before flying away, not noticing there was a glowing violet jewel on the ground.

"_Xin Jing had merged her spirit with that of the four dragons, creating a small yet powerful crystal amulet from their very life force." _

Though Shendu didn't notice the jewel, there was a man who did. An elderly Chinese man with a long black beard and mustache wearing a green robe. He picked up the glowing jewel and ran away with it.

"_The jewel would later be recovered by a wizard who had befriended Xin Jing before, a wizard by the name of Lo Pei. He knew of Xin Jing's powers and how powerful she was, and after years of studying the crystal's power, Lo Pei would lead a rebellion against the Ultimate Evil to free the land from his oppressive rule."_

Lo Pei wore the glowing amulet around his neck like a necklace as he led an army of people; most had brought weapons and flags, while the ones up front wore white robes and pounded on large drums as they confronted Shendu who landed in front of them and gave them a challenging roar.

"_Using the power of the crystal to amplify his own Chi-Magic, Lo Pei cast a powerful spell on Shendu." _Lo Pei quickly brought out two sutras and cast a powerful spell, one that briefly turned the amulet's color from violet to green as Lo Pei shot out a blast of Chi-Magic which hit Shendu dead on. His body had turned into stone and the Twelve Talismans were separated from his body. _"His physical form was encased in stone, and the powers of the Zodiac were stripped from him in the form of Twelve Talismans."_

As everyone in the rebellion cheered for their victory, Lo Pei looked at the glowing amulet in his hands, the amulet that would later be known as the Heart of Kandrakar.

* * *

Will held the Heart of Kandrakar in her hands as she, Jade, Jackie, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, Hay Lin, Tohru, and even Viper looked in awe at the crystal.

"The origin of our powers…" Will gave a gasp of awe and amazement.

"That thing is what took down Shendu nine hundred years ago!? Awesome!" Jade exclaimed.

"Incredible…" Jackie was in equal awe as well.

"That is so our play!" Hay Lin exclaimed excitedly.

"So, I'm obviously the Nymph, right?" Cornelia said with a grin.

"Nah, you'd actually make a pretty good demon instead." Irma cracked, causing most of the group to laugh, while Cornelia just sulked with crossed arms.

"I'm not sure the school will let us do a play that centers around a monster committing genocide though." Taranee pointed out.

"Just censor it." Viper said.

"You could simply say that Shendu merely 'destroyed' the valley. You don't have to go into details." Tohru proposed.

"That should work." Will said.

"Alright, now I'm actually getting excited!" Jade grinned.

* * *

_The Next Day_

After classes ended; the six girls helped to build up the props and set for their chosen play in the school's auditorium. Will, Taranee, and Irma painted and built the props as Hay Lin made the costumes, with Cornelia and Jade testing out the costumes she already finished. Cornelia was dressed as the Nymph with a pink dress that looked like something a princess would war, while Jade wore a suit that looked pretty close to Shendu's appearance, seeing that Jade had seen him up close and personal, it was pretty easy to remember what he looked like.

"Hey check me out!" Jade stood on a box as she put on an impression of the Fire Demon. "I am Shendu, the Ultimate Evil! Bow to me or perish! Muh ha ha ha ha ha!"

"I feel like you're enjoying this way too much, Jade." Taranee pointed out nervously.

"Seriously, didn't he try to kill you and Jackie like, multiple times?" Will asked.

"Well yeah, he's evil, but the dude had some serious edge." Jade said.

"Well, the villain role is covered, but we only have three dragons, I need one more." Hay Lin said as she brought in the dragon-masks she just finished. "Taranee?"

"Nuh uh! I get stage fright." Taranee said.

"Stage fright, height fright, imported cheese fright." Irma teased.

"Cornelia?" Hay Lin asked.

"You cannot put _this _face under a dragon mask!" Cornelia said arrogantly, only to give a scream as Jade in her Shendu-costume spooked her from behind.

"Bow to me you shallow little fairy princess or I shall burn you alive!" Jade put on her Shendu impression as everyone else laughed at Cornelia's dismay.

"Hey, here's the crystal. What do you think?" Taranee made her own prop of the Heart of Kandrakar, which was basically a decorated lightbulb with a switch at the bottom.

"So, wait, who's gonna be Lo Pei then?" Jade asked.

"I'll do it." Will said. "I mean, the dragon I'm playing is gonna end up sealed in a mountain, and later turned into a crystal, and they're never seen together, I can play two roles."

"Alright but be sure you do him right." Jade told her friend. "I was pals with him and he was all kinds of cool."

"How can you be friends with him if he lived nine hundred years ago?" Cornelia asked.

"I used the Rat Talisman on a statue of him to bring him to life. Long story." Jade summed up.

Suddenly, Blunk nearly fell down from the ceiling but held onto a rope to prevent himself from hitting the ground. Though they were somewhat surprised to see him, they were even more surprised to see him dressed up like an angel with a white rob, blonde wig, and wings.

"Blunk?!" Will questioned.

"Flap! Flap! Blunk cute birdy!" The Passling pretended to be a bird.

"Get that off him." Will said in an exhausted tone as Hay Lin and Jade got the wings and wig off him.

Blunk looked around at the auditorium and realized that the girls were setting up for a play. "A play? Love plays! Blunk be prince!" He put on a cloth to act as a cape as he put on a prince-impression. "People, worship Blunk!"

"There's no prince in the play." Irma told him.

"But we _do_ need another dragon, right? It doesn't have to be a _tall _dragon." Taranee pointed out. "And he's in a costume and mask anyway."

"Works for me." Hay Lin shrugged.

"Knew real dragon once." Blunk said. "Wanted egg back, bit uncle's butt off, never the same."

"Okay, too much information!" Cornelia gagged as the other girls, including Jade, just looked wierded out.

* * *

_Later that Evening_

Caleb walked down an alley as he kicked a can out of frustration. Though he was grateful for the girls' and Jackie's assistance, it was annoying that he still felt like he had to ask permission. "I'm a rebel leader, I don't have time to ask a bunch of girls or old men for permission." He grumbled.

"Caleb!"

The young rebel gave a startled gasp as he saw Blunk in his dragon costume for the upcoming play, sitting on a dumpster with a bag of literal trash in his hands.

"What? Only Blunk."

"What are you wearing?" Caleb questioned.

"Blunk rehearse while collecting treasure. Blunk star. Blunk have message." The Passling relayed.

"From who?" Caleb lowered himself, as Blunk got his attention.

"Big blue thing tell Blunk cousin, Blunk tell you." The Passling informed.

"Big blue…" Caleb's eyes widened. "Vathek?!"

"Seal of Phobos found, at Torus Filney. What blue thing said." Blunk told him.

"The Seal of Phobos?!" The young rebel exclaimed in shock. Never once did he think he'd hear news like this. "This could be the news that turns the whole war around!"

"What is Seal anyway?" Blunk asked as he honestly never heard of it before.

"It's a small metal talisman with a royal crest." Caleb explained. "It has the power to open anything that's closed, to reveal anything that's hidden, it can even split holes in the Vale."

"Uh oh. Blunk out of business."

"Trust you to see the big picture." Caleb muttered sarcastically before continuing. "It was stolen from Phobos twelve years ago, by a mysterious woman who captured the true heir to the throne, in order to protect the infant and used the Seal to cross over to Earth. Phobos has been searching for the Seal ever since. With it, his powers would be fearsome. But if _I _had it, I can cross the veil anytime I wanted." Caleb turned to Blunk. "The next portal that opens, tell me before you tell Chan and the Guardians, I can't afford to ask for permission with this."

Blunk gave a thumps up, a fly soon landed on his thump, which the Passling promptly ate.

* * *

_The Next Night_

It was Drama Night, and the auditorium was already beginning to fill with the girls' families as Jade, Will, Cornelia, Irma, Hay Lin, and Taranee were backstage as they all had their respective costumes on, save for Taranee who would be acting as the narrator for the play. The bespectacled girl looked out past the curtain as the others were getting ready.

"Then I saw 'you four are traitors! Be imprisoned forever!'" Jade rehearsed one last time as she had her Shendu-costume on.

"Wait there's only three, where's you-know-what?" Cornelia groaned as Blunk was missing. But he quickly arrived in his dragon-suit in the nick of time.

"Sorry late! Had to show Caleb… something." Blunk said.

* * *

_Meridian – Torus Filney _

A man in a robe with a wooden cane led Caleb up a hill, but the young rebel was starting to become impatient.

"How far until we get there?"

"Not far." The man answered. "You are the second to express interest in this metal talisman. Six years ago, I found it. Is it valuable?"

"You'll be well-rewarded." Caleb told him.

A sinister smile echoed from the man, much to Caleb's confusion and later shock as he was surrounded by a puff of blue smoke before he shed his disguise and revealed his true form as the Dark Chi Wizard.

"I already am, young rebel."

"Daolon Wong!" Caleb exclaimed when suddenly his feet were entangled by streams of sand and he felt himself being pulled into the ground. Already, his lower half was completely sunk.

"So young and so head-strong." Wong began to monologue. "The first sign of a possible advantage over your enemy, you don't hesitate to jump regardless of the risks. Children these days are so reckless." Caleb was almost completely sunk. "You cannot escape, these sands were enchanted by my own magics and will consume any and all that treed their path. And while you suffer an agonizing death for years to come… I will find the traitor in our ranks that have passed this news onto you." Wong laughed as he enveloped himself in dark blue smoke and vanished just before Caleb sunk completely into the magic quicksand.

* * *

_Earth – Sheffield Institute_

The audience waited for the play to begin, but it seemed as though it was on hold for the moment, something that made Jackie, Tohru, Uncle, and Viper concerned as they sat in the audience as well.

"Shouldn't they be starting by now?" Viper wondered.

"Maybe their having trouble getting ready?" Tohru suggested.

Jackie's eyes narrowed slightly. "Something is wrong."

"Jackie, Jin, all of you."

They all turned to see Yan Lin looking towards them with a concerned expression. "Yan Lin?" Uncle asked.

"Come backstage, now." The elderly former Guardian said in an urgent tone. Hearing that tone, they knew something was wrong as they got up from their seats and followed Yan Lin backstage where the girls and Blunk were getting ready.

"Girls! Girls! Caleb is in danger!" Yan Lin got their attention. "He went to Meridian and left me this note!" Will took the note immediately and read it along with Jackie.

"The Seal of Phobos?" Will questioned, never hearing that before.

"What the evil prince lost a key or something?" Jade questioned as well.

"The Seal is a magical talisman that can open anything, including portals in the Veil." Yan Lin told them.

"Seriously?!" Irma, Jade, and Taranee questioned at the same time.

"And Phobos has found it?" Jackie questioned urgently.

"No, he hasn't." Uncle was able to put the pieces together very quickly. "If Phobos had found seal, he would not have waited to acquire it."

"Yeah, this has 'trap' written all over it." Viper, being a former super thief, could recognize a set-up a mile away.

"How could Caleb have gone to Meridian though?" Tohru asked. "He would have had to use a portal and…"

All eyes set upon Blunk as he tried to walk away while giving an innocent whistle, only for Jackie to grab him by his costume and look at him with a disappointed expression.

"Blunk." All the girls practically growled.

"Oops… Ow!" The Passling felt a smack on his forehead where Uncle delivered a dope-slap.

"We have to go!" Will stated.

"We can't walk out on our own play! We'll get expelled!" Hay Lin quickly told them.

"No, you won't." Jackie told the girls. "Because _I'm_ going to Meridian."

"Wha… by yourself!?" Cornelia exclaimed as she and the other girls, aside from Jade, looked in surprise.

"Of course not, I'm going with him to." Viper said immediately.

"As am I." Tohru added.

"Uncle will go as well. Magic must defeat magic."

"But… you guys aren't Guardians…" Taranee said.

"I don't know if you noticed kid; but between a super-ex-thief, a massive sumo, a martial artist whose skills probably rival even Bruce Lee, and an old wizard… I think we can handle ourselves." Viper said with a confident grin.

"We've all dealt with this sort of thing before, we should be fine." Tohru added.

"I'll go to, just in case." Yan Lin added.

"Grandma?!" Hay Lin did not expect to hear that. "But…"

"I may not be a Guardian anymore, but this old broad still has a few tricks up her sleeve." Yan Lin grinned.

"Agreed, and we'll stop by Section 13 and grab the Talismans." Jackie said. "You just say focused on your play, leave Caleb to us. Will, where did you find the portal?" Jackie asked as he took out the map.

Will took out the Heart of Kandrakar and held it over the map where it showed the portal, it wasn't too far from their location. "Doesn't look too far from here. In fact, it's not that far from Section 13 either."

"Good." Jackie nodded. "Let's go." With that; he, Viper, Uncle, Tohru, and Yan Lin ran out the exit door in the back of the room, while most of the girls looked in concern.

"You really think they're gonna be okay?" Irma wondered.

"Guys, he's Jackie-flipping-Chan!" Jade stated. "He's taken on demons with his bare hands! Plus, he's got Viper, Tohru, _and _Uncle! And even Hay Lin's grandma! Combine the almost complete J-Team with the Talismans, pretty sure they can take whatever Phobos throws at them!"

"Jade's right, we've seen them all in action before. They can handle it." Will put her faith in them; and with Will and Jade's words, the other girls decided they put their faith in them as well. "Now, let's get this play over with."

The curtains opened up as the show was about to begin.

* * *

_Meridian _

After making a quick stop at Section 13, Jackie's group had gathered all thirteen of the Talismans as they passed through the portal and into Meridian.

"So, this is Meridian? Yeah, not exactly a tropical paradise." Viper observed as she had donned her titular cat-suit.

"Captain Black has a team of agents outside this portal to make sure no monsters pass through, but we should still move quickly." Jackie told the group.

"Torus Filney shouldn't be far from here. Just up past that hill." Yan Lin pointed them in the direction they needed to go. With that, they quickly made their way up the hill towards their destination.

The group had ran to the top of the hill and spotted so many ruined houses and fences, where they could barely make out people hiding in the houses. As they continued to walk, Uncle suddenly felt a chill run down his spine as he got a case of the willies. Right when that happened however, a tentacle of sand wrapped around his ankle and began to pull him into the ground.

"Aiya!" He shouted, getting everyone's attention.

"Sensei!

"Uncle!" Jackie and Tohru were the first to run and help pull him out of the sand just as Viper used the Pig Talisman to blast heat-beams from her eyes at the moving sand and blast it back.

"The hell was that?" Viper questioned as Jackie and Tohru helped Uncle.

"Dark magic resides here." Uncle observed. "This is not a normal occurrence."

"A boy fell in the sands."

The group turned around to see two children, one boy and one girl, having frightened and despaired looks on their faces.

"This boy, did he have brown hair and green eyes?" Jackie asked, as the boy nodded.

"If there's quicksand here why don't you just move away?" Viper asked as well.

"It moves…" The girl said. "It has been moving since that bad wizard used his magic on it."

Uncle gave a gasp. "Daolon Wong."

"Our brother Michael fell in too. That was a long time ago." The girl said as her younger brother clung to her even more, no doubt missing his brother.

All of them had concerned expressions as Yan Lin was the first to kneel to their level. "Do not worry. These people will do everything in their power to stop this sand-creature."

* * *

_Earth - Sheffield Institute _

"Nine hundred years ago, the demon lord Shendu ruled over the land with an iron fist… or well, claw." Taranee narrated as Jade dressed in her Shendu-costume sat on her throne.

"This land is mine! All hail my grand and glorious power!" Jade gave an evil laugh to add onto her performance.

"However, there were four dragons that stood against this oppressive tyrant." Taranee continued to narrate as the four 'dragons', Will, Irma, Hay Lin, and Blunk walked onto the scene. As the play continued however, Will looked towards the audience and saw that Jackie's spot was still empty; though she put her faith in him, it didn't mean that she wouldn't be worried about him.

* * *

_Meridian – Torus Filney _

The two children had provided Uncle with a bowl as he took out a bag filled with spell ingredients and got to work.

"Sensei, if Daolon Wong used his own magic to bring the sands of this village to life, perhaps you could use your own magic to find a counter-spell." Tohru suggested.

"Perhaps, but Uncle will need time to prepare spell." Uncle said.

"Not to mention we have no idea what's down there, or if Caleb's even alive." Viper said.

"I'll see what I can find." Jackie said as he took out the Sheep Talisman. The group knew what he was planning as Jackie activated the Talisman's power of astral projection. His physical body fell as Viper caught it and gently laid it down while Jackie's invisible astral form hovered in the sky. He then dove into the sandpit to see what he could find.

In his astral form, Jackie was the equivalent of a ghost; he could pass through anything and was unseen by any and all eyes, with the exception of other spirits or astral forms. Jackie's astral form had passed through the sand with no issue as he found himself in what appeared to be an underground cavern that stretched out in all directions with multiple stone pillars stretching from the top to the bottom of a sandy floor. Jackie looked around and gasped once he saw a skeleton embedded in one pillar.

Jackie gave a mournful sigh, realizing that people had indeed died here before he flew even further and spotted several other people; men, women, children even, many were on the verge of starving to death but still very much alive. He even found the one he was looking for.

"Caleb!" Jackie exclaimed, but due to being in his astral form, the young rebel couldn't see or hear him. Confirming that he was alive, he flew back up to the surface and allowed his astral form to return to his physical body, enabling him to wake up.

"Jackie, what did you find?" Viper asked.

"Caleb is alive, as are many people down there." Jackie said. "We have to save them."

"Then go, I'll stay with Jin and help him finish the spell." Yan Lin said.

"Agreed." Jackie nodded.

"Everyone stand back." Tohru took out the Monkey Talisman and used its power to transform into a massive hawk with an enormous wingspan as he appeared big enough to carry at least two dozen people. The children were briefly startled, but Jackie and Viper didn't hesitate to climb on as the giant Hawk-Tohru flew straight up and then straight down into the living sandpit.

Hawk-Tohru continued to fly through the cavern, where he and his friends quickly found the young rebel. "Caleb!" Jackie got his attention.

"Be careful! Don't touch the ground or the walls!" Caleb warned them.

"Yeah, we figured." Viper pointed out.

Caleb saw the disappointed look on Jackie's face. "I know, I was tricked. I'm sorry, just get me out of here."

"Don't move." Jackie said as he used the Dragon Talisman to shoot a condensed beam of fire to cut out Caleb from the pillar. He and Viper grabbed him and put him on the back of Hawk-Tohru.

"There are other people in here, we have to get them all out of here!" Caleb stated.

"Heads up!" Viper warned as Hawk-Tohru could barely dodge multiple sand tentacles lashing out at them.

"We're too big a target" Jackie stated. "Get all the people out, I will run interference!"

"Alright, just be careful Jackie." Viper said to him as he held the Dragon, Rooster, and Rabbit Talismans.

"I will be." Jackie assured as he jumped off and used the combined Rooster and Rabbit talismans to fly before he shot multiple blasts of fire from the Dragon Talisman at the ground to shake up the entire cavern. Jackie could have sworn that he heard an angered and painful roar as he looked down in surprise to see the sand take shape to reveal a large and angry face. In addition, multiple sand tentacles shot out of the ground, ceiling, and walls as they loomed over Jackie with deadly intent.

"Bad day."

* * *

_Earth – Sheffield Institute_

The play continued pretty smoothly as all the actors were in-character with their respective roles, even Blunk who was urged to remain silent, after a brief bribe from Jade saying she'd give him some doughnuts if he didn't speak, which he accepted.

"I urge you, all mighty Dragons, help me end this cursed famine upon the land of which Shendu has soiled with his evil." Cornelia in her role as Xing Jin pleaded with the four dragons.

"Moved by the gentle nature of the nymph, as well as the suffering of the people, the dragons agreed to help her." Taranee narrated. "Two dragons used their fire-breath to boil the ocean, as the others used their wings to help lift it to the skies."

Jade, who was off-stage as Shendu didn't have a role this scene, moved some sticks back-stage to motion some fire-props as Will and Blunk pretended to breath fire; as Hay Lin and Irma lifted their arms to act as wings as Jade pulled on some string to move the fake carboard clouds.

"Rain fell onto the valley and the drought had ended." Taranee narrated as she moved a bit back-stage to drop a painted backdrop of a rainy day with green grass and colorful flowers.

* * *

_Meridian – Torus Filney _

Uncle continued to try and prepare the spell as he and Yan Lin both felt the ground shake. "Ooh, someone's having a party down there." Yan Lin injected some humor into the situation.

"Aiya!" Uncle exclaimed. "I cannot prepare counter-spell! Without knowing how Daolon Wong brought sand to life, Uncle cannot prepare a proper defense!"

"Then perhaps we should try a different approach." Yan Lin suggested. "I know how you always say, 'magic must defeat magic', but that doesn't mean magic is the _only _way to defeat magic."

"What do you mean?" Uncle asked.

"Our enemy is living sand, and there are typically two different ways to defeat an enemy like that." Yan Lin explained. "The first is usually with water to solidify it and turn it into mud, or with intense heat in which the sand will become glass, which is much more fragile and easier to break. And seeing how we have two Talismans that have heat-based powers, perhaps the later method would work best for us."

"A good idea Yan Lin, but the sand is alive and moving." Uncle countered. "It will not stay still long enough for us to glass it."

Yan Lin saw Uncle had a point, but an idea soon came to her. "I can hold it still." That caught Uncle's attention as Yan Lin continued. "With my air powers, I can create a twister than can keep the sand together long enough for Jackie and the others to use the Dragon and Pig Talismans to stop it."

"But you are no longer connected to an Auremere." Uncle protested with worry in his voice. "Using your own abilities as a former Guardian will drain your chi… your very life-force."

"An occupational hazard." Yan Lin brushed off with her usual grin before getting serious. "But I'm certain your Chi-Magic will provide me with enough of a boost, so it doesn't become fatal. I may be spunky, but I'm not _that _daring." Uncle still looked with worry, as Yan Lin continued. "Jin, I know you are worried and that's sweet, but I know we can do this." She put a hand on his shoulder. "Just like old times."

Uncle sighed as a small reminiscent smile appeared on his face. "Just like old times. I will do it, but I need a strand of your hair."

Yan Lin chuckled. "Asking a fair maiden for her hair? You've become quite the gentleman in your old age Jin."

"Just give Uncle hair." Uncle's eyelids lowered as Yan Lin plucked a strand of her old hair, which Uncle dropped in his bowl of magic potion which began to glow as Uncle began to prepare the proper spell.

"_Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao…."_

* * *

Jackie flew at high speeds to avoid the sand tentacles lashing out at him. As he flew, he also shot blasts of fire from the Dragon Talismans to blast the sand tentacles back, as well as actively try to destroy the pillars in the area in order to keep the attention of this living sandpit focused squarely on him.

"That is right… keep following me…" Jackie muttered as he continued to fly with more sand-tentacles emerging from every corner to lash out at him.

Meanwhile; Viper and Caleb continued to ride on Hawk-Tohru as they pulled a woman from a pillar, with Caleb using the Ox Talisman for added strength to do it as quickly as possible without disturbing the living sandpit. So far, they already had ten people in total.

"I think that's all of them." Caleb said. "We've searched every corner of this pit."

"Good, because I think Sandboy's noticed us." Viper said as she saw a giant angry sand-face form on the wall closest to them. It moaned as more sand tentacles shot from the wall, which Viper was quick to shoot down with heat-beam eyes from the Pig Talisman and Caleb used the Ox Talisman's strength to punch any that got too close. "Tohru! Get us out of here!"

Hawk-Tohru gave an affirmative caw as it flew away from the tentacles. However, as it flew, the entire cavern appeared to collapse as sand began to shake and tear apart everything, causing more sand to form as more tentacles formed to try and lash out and catch up to its escaping prey.

Jackie had heard the commotion going on and quickly flew back the way he came with the Rabbit and Rooster Talismans as his side of the cavern collapsed itself to produce more sand and pursue after him with more sand tendrils as well. It wasn't long before Jackie met up with his friends and the people they rescued.

"Jackie, we got everyone! Let's get out of here!" Viper told him.

"Right!" Jackie agreed as he and Hawk-Tohru flew straight upward as he and Viper both shot blasts of fire and heat-beam eyes respectively at the ceiling to blast a hole straight to the surface, which they quickly flew out with a maelstrom of sand right behind them.

By the time they made it outside, a geyser of sand had blasted them out as they all fell to the hard ground, Tohru turned back to normal as he, Jackie, Viper, and all the people they rescued looked to see the massive cluster of living sand take shape to form a massive humanoid monster which gave an inhuman moan and was ready to destroy those that had invaded its space and stole away its meals.

All the people screamed and panicked as Jackie, Viper, and Tohru picked themselves up and were more than ready to fight back. But that proved unnecessary as they saw a bright green glow coming from Uncle and Yan Lin right underneath the giant sand-monster.

"_Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao." _Uncle continued to chant as he held onto Yan Lin's shoulders, channeling a great deal of Chi-Magic into her body. Her own body began to glow with a green aura as the Chi-Magic enhanced her life-force and her own natural elemental control over air. Yan Lin raised her hands and created a large tornado, one that was powerful enough to suck in the sand-monster and keep it trapped within the vortex.

"Jackie! Use Dragon and Pig Talismans! Now!" Uncle exclaimed.

No time to argue or protest, Jackie shot a continuous blast of fire from the Dragon Talisman as Viper mirrored his action with heat-beam eyes from the Pig Talisman. Both attacks hit the twister as the fire and heat-energy mixed in and superheated the sand and wind to proportional levels. Suddenly, the over-heated twister exploded in a bright flash of light; causing everyone in the area to shield their eyes.

When the light subsided, everyone looked in shock to see a large tornado made entirely out of glass standing in place of the sand monster. It then tipped over and fell backwards away from everyone before it landed on the ground and shattered in the pit where the vile sand creature once stood. Once it was confirmed that everyone was safe, all the people present and those from the nearby village all cheered as they were reunited with lost loved ones. Even the two children from before had a heart-warming reunion with their brother Michael, something that made Jackie smile.

Jackie felt his own hand being held as Viper looked at him with a smile. "Nice job, we should team up more often."

Jackie had a small blush on his cheeks as he only nodded.

Yan Lin almost fell back in exhaustion, but Uncle was able to catch her and Tohru quickly ran up to them. "Miss Lin, are you alright?"

"I'll be fine." Yan Lin took a few deep breaths. "Not as young as I used to be."

"But still full of energy. Uncle approves." Uncle nodded, causing Yan Lin to chuckle and even Tohru to smile.

* * *

_Earth – Sheffield Institute _

"You have gone too far Shendu!" Will, in her character and outfit as Lo Pei declared as she held the prop crystal in her hands while facing Jade in her Shendu-costume. "I will not allow you to harm these lands anymore!"

"Then face me, Wizard! Your cheap tactics are no match for my own dark powers!" Jade challenged in her role.

"_Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao." _Will made the chant, and while it was intended for only acting, the Heart of Kandrakar itself, while being hidden in her own pocket underneath her costume, began to glow green as opposed to its usual pink. And as she chanted, Irma turned on a switch backstage to activate bright lights to shine a flash on the audience and made it look like a bright spell had been casted.

When Irma pulled the switch down, Jade had disappeared off-stage and, in her place, a backdrop of a picture of Shendu in his statue form had appeared in front of the audience.

"With the power of the crystal, Shendu was stripped of his dark powers and his body encased in stone. And there he would remain for all time." Taranee narrated. "And though Xing Jin and the noble Dragons are no longer among us, their sacrifice will forever be remembered by the descendants of this now-free-land."

The play had come to an end as Will, Jade, Irma, Cornelia, Hay Lin, Taranee, and Blunk (still in his costume with his face unseen by the audience) got on stage as everyone in the audience gave a standing ovation as they literally stood from their seats and clapped at the performance they put on. Will and Jade looked around and were slightly surprised to see Jackie had made it back, along with Viper, Yan Lin, Tohru, Uncle, and even Caleb, all of whom were clapping as well. So, with smiles, the group held hands and did a group bow.

* * *

Moments later; most of the audience had already left as Principle Knickerbocker gave her congratulations to the girls. "I must say girls, that was one of the best performances in any drama night we've seen in this school!"

"Thank you, Mrs. Knickerbocker." Will smiled.

"So, the costumes were good?" Hay Lin hopped.

"They were phenomenal, as well as each of your performances, especially yours Jade." Knickerbocker told her. "With such emotion in your performance, it was almost as if you knew the character you were playing."

"Yeah… almost…" Jade chuckled nervously as Knickerbocker had no idea just how true that was.

"Excellent job to all of you. I look forward to your next performance." The principle said as she left the stage.

"Don't hold your breath." Irma muttered as they probably weren't going to do another play after this.

"Well, I actually had fun." Cornelia said. "So, I wouldn't mind doing another play."

"As long as I get to play the bad guy, I'm good." Jade added.

"You're enjoying that way too much, Jade." Taranee pointed out.

"Ahem." Blunk got all their attention. "Blunk love play, but Jade-girl promise Blunk dougnuts."

All the girls rolled their eyes in response. Five minutes later, they all went outside to the parking lot where they saw Caleb getting quite the scolding from the adults in their group, particularly Uncle.

"Ow! Ow! Ow!" Caleb rubbed his forehead as Uncle had dope-slapped him there three times.

"What was Rebel-boy thinking?!" Uncle exclaimed. "If Seal of Phobos had been found, Dark Prince would have taken it immediately! He would not have waited!"

"Yeah, if you told me what was going, I would have seen it for the set-up that it was." Viper added.

"Okay… I get and… I'm sorry." Caleb said as his forehead was still sore.

"You better be! Do you have any idea how worried I was about you!?" Cornelia scolded as she and the others joined them. Her eyes widened realizing what she just said. "Well, we were _all_ worried but… I wasn't especially… I just…"

"Someone's got it _bad_." Irma whispered to Jade with a knowing grin.

"Oh definitely." Jade mirrored Irma's grin with her own.

"I'm glad you guys made it back in one piece." Will told Jackie and the others.

"So are we, but it wasn't just Caleb we rescued." Jackie responded.

"As it turned out, Daolon Wong had enchanted the sands around Torus Filney, and many of its villagers had been trapped there and would have remained trapped if we hadn't been there to rescue them." Tohru said.

"Which would mean that Caleb's lack in judgment actually brought some good." Yan Lin found the silver lining.

"Yeah…" Though Caleb was still ashamed he let himself be tricked like this, it still felt good to help all those people. "And on the bright side, Phobos still doesn't have the Seal."

* * *

_Meridian _

"The traitor will be unmasked." Cedric hissed in his humanoid serpent form as he spoke to Lothar in the castle-town. "I want a list of all who left the castle yesterday."

Lothar saluted before walking away, all the while neither of them noticed that in the sewers just underneath their very feat, the Seal of Phobos continued to lain where it had been lost more than a decade ago, just waiting for someone to pick it up and put its incredible and dangerous powers to use.

**Done. **

**I know this chapter doesn't seem like much, but we have now confirmed the existence of the Seal of Phobos, but don't expect it to make another appearance till much later in the story. We also got a pretty cool fight with Jackie, Tohru, Viper, and Uncle, and even Yan Lin against the monstrous Sandpit and it looks like he's been destroyed (for now, but we all know who comes back to bring the monster back to life).**

**We also got a little bit of foreshadowing in regards to the Oni, which are gonna show up in this story, but not till around the half-way point of Season 1.**

**But I believe the most important thing to take from this chapter is the origins of the Heart of Kandrakar. It was created by a Nymph and four Noble Dragons and was originally used by Lo Pei to defeat Shendu nine centuries ago and imprison him to stone. Bet you guys didn't see that coming, did ya? Anyway, I hope you like this story and I will have the next chapter up soon as it is actually based off a JCA episode as opposed to another WITCH one. See you soon. :)**


	11. Pleasure Cruise

**Hi everyone, thanks again for waiting. So, here we are actually dealing with the first JCA episode featuring the WITCH characters in this story; something a bit light-hearted to take a break from the main conflict against Phobos at the moment. So, without further delay, let us begin.**

**Pleasure Cruise **

Jackie and Jade were at the docks as the archeologist was overseeing a transfer of a large and valuable artifact towards a cargo ship.

"Slowly, slowly." Jackie told the forklift driver as he was carrying a box with a large golden dragon statue towards the ship. "The museum will be very pleased to hear the Golden Dragon will return to Hong Kong."

"Uh Earth to Jackie, it's going to London!" Jade stated. "This is the _Atlantic _Ocean, not the Pacific."

"Those in Hong Kong felt it best for the statue to take a detour." Jackie explained. "First, it was transferred all the way here from San Francisco, then it'll be shipped to London via boat, before taking a flight to Hong Kong and finally arriving at its destination."

"Yesh, overkill much?" Jade question. "I know it's a large dragon made out of solid gold and all but… seriously?"

"Maintaining security has been incredibly difficult." Jackie continued to explain. "There were at least three attempts to steal it, even on route here to Heatherfield."

"Uh… make that four!" Jade pointed toward an incoming helicopter, causing Jackie to gasp as he saw the helicopter had a hook via a cable that extend downward from its bottom. The hook was just about to latch onto the box containing the Golden Dragon, but Jackie suddenly leapt onto the box to kick the hook back.

"Quickly! Quickly!" He told the forklift driver who drove away as fast as he could with the precious cargo, as well as Jackie still on top.

"Jackie!" Jade called out in alarm as the helicopter flew back in for another attempt, but instead of the artifact, it snagged Jackie by the back of his belt and began to pull him away.

However, completely unbeknownst to Jackie and Jade, the pilot of the helicopter was none other than the deadly martial artist known as Hak Foo. He saw on the screen of the helicopter that Jackie was hooked, much to his surprise.

"Chan?!" Hak Foo exclaimed before he growled. However, Hak Foo noticed the tall buildings in the city before an idea came to mind. "Black Tiger Scrapes Gum Off Shoe!" Hak Foo exclaimed as he flew the helicopter higher towards a tall building, attempting to smash and/or scrape Jackie off the helicopter.

Jackie saw the building he was heading toward and realized what the helicopter's pilot was attempting to do. "Bad day! Bad day!" He quickly unbuckled his belt and began to fall. "BAD DAAAAAY!" Fortunately, he fell close toward the building and was able to grab onto a flagpole to avoid an otherwise fatal fall. Jackie gave a sigh as he saw the helicopter fly away, but his relief turned into fear as the flagpole couldn't support his weight and fell off the side of the building.

It would have been a very hard landing, but Jackie was able to grab one end of the flag and hold onto it and the pole as the flag itself acted similar to a parachute and slowed Jackie's descent where he was able to land safely on the ground, much to the confusion of the citizens around him.

"Uh… the elevator is too slow…" Jackie laughed nervously.

* * *

_Uncle's Rare Finds._

While Jackie would see to a change in plans in regard to the Golden Dragon; Jade returned to her Uncle's shop where she told all her friends, even Yan Lin, what had happened while Tohru and a reluctant Caleb were helping Uncle with inventory.

"Cantone vases?" Uncle asked as he held an abacus.

"Eight, sensei." Tohru responded while Caleb counted chopsticks on a mat on the floor.

"You guys should have seen me!" Jade said to the other girls. "Rescuing the Dragon! Chasing off the bad guys!"

"Really? _You _chased them off? By yourself?" Will questioned almost skeptically with a playful tone in her voice.

"Er, well I mean Uncle Jackie helped to." Jade responded.

"And by that, I think you mean he did all the work, right?" Irma joked.

"Wish we could have been there." Hay Lin said. "It would have been fun to see."

"Eh, it be more fun to beat them up ourselves." Cornelia stated.

"Now, now, girls." Yan Lin said. "I know how much fun it seems being a Guardian, but we should leave normal villains to people like the police."

"Well, I mean we _did _fight the Dark Hand…and they're pretty normal." Taranee pointed out.

"The Dark Hand had magic talismans, so I wouldn't count them as normal." Will replied.

"Less talk! Uncle busy counting!" Uncle told the girls as he turned to Caleb. "How many chopsticks?"

"Looks like fifteen… OW!" Caleb felt his forehead where Uncle delivered his titular dope-slap.

"Fifteen?! Chopsticks always come in _pairs_! Count again!"

Caleb groaned. "I don't see why I have to do inventory in some old shop."

"Uncle has zero-free-loader policy!" Uncle stated. "You want to stay in Uncle's shop, then Rebel boy must work!"

"It's either here, or at Grandma's restaurant. You're pick." Hay Lin teased playfully as Caleb sighed in exhaustion.

"So, what happened to that dragon-thing anyway?" Will asked Jade.

"Thanks to Uncle Jackie and I, it's loaded up and heading for…"

"No, it's not Jade." Jackie interrupted as he had just entered the shop. "The cargo ship was not a secure enough transport. The museum decided that with the thieves still at large, the Golden Dragon will instead travel to London on the last place anyone would think to look: a cruise ship. I will accompany it"

"You're going on a cruise while we're stuck here?!" Cornelia questioned. "Lucky."

"Yeah, that's a real eleven on the suck-o-meter." Irma grunted as well.

"Yes, the only problem is, Section 13 pulled some strings to help give me ten tickets." Jackie said in a playful manner. "What am I going to do with the extra nine?"

That seemed to get the attention of all six girls. "Wait… Uncle Jackie are you saying…?" Jade asked with a smile, to which Jackie only responded with a smile and a nod, which was all the confirmation the girls needed.

"We're going on a cruise?!" Will exclaimed with a wide grin.

"Seriously?!" Irma also exclaimed excitedly.

"First you volunteer to chaperonage for our school's ski-trip, now this?!" Taranee was about as excited as everyone else.

"Premium spa-treatment, here I come!" Cornelia was just as excited as well.

"Thank you so much Uncle Jackie!" Hay Lin exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around him in the form of a hug.

Jackie laughed. "I figured that with all the stress you've been dealing with recently, you could use a break. I already called each of your parents, and they agreed on the condition that I bring more than a few chaperones than just myself: Miss Lin will be joining us as well."

"Aw, well aren't you a sweet boy." Yan Lin teased as she playfully pinched Jackie's cheek. "I can't wait to stretch out these old bones with some shuffle boarding."

"Caleb, Uncle, and Tohru will be joining us as well." Jackie revealed.

"Bah. Uncle does not cruise! Uncle does inventory!" Uncle protested.

"What exactly is a cruise, anyway?" Caleb asked.

"It's basically a party-boat where you relax and take a vacation." Irma explained. "Oh wait, you probably don't have vacations in Meridian, do you?" She joked.

"I know what a vacation is!" Caleb protested. "I just don't feel like I should take one, considering Phobos is still ruling over Meridian, and his right-hand-snake is here still looking for the heir."

Jade gave a slight scoff. "Just tell your pals to hide out in the Infinite City. I mean that place is literally endless and Phobos has no idea where it is."

"And while we are away, Captain Black will keep an eye on things here." Jackie assured Caleb. "We already have a few locations narrowed down to where we believe Cedric may be hiding."

"See Caleb, they got this covered." Cornelia told him. "Come on, you've been fighting for your life for years! I think you deserve at least one weekend to relax and not worry about fighting!"

Caleb sighed as they had reasonable points, he even saw a look in Cornelia's eyes that was slightly pleading that he should join them, and that seemed enough to convince him. "Alright, I suppose I could use some time off."

This caused Cornelia to smile, while the other girls had knowing smirks on their faces.

"Ten bucks says she's gonna go all Titanic with him." Will whispered to Taranee.

"Oh definitely." Taranee whispered back as the both snickered.

"Rebel boy can go, but Uncle will stay." The old Chi-Wizard insisted.

"Jin, when was the last time you took the time to relax on a real vacation?" Yan Lin asked him.

Uncle went to his abacas. "Let me see… three, four, carry the one… never. So why start now?"

"I'm fine with him staying." Cornelia said, only to get elbowed slightly by Will.

"Oh, come on Uncle, it's gonna be wicked fun!" Jade said to the old man.

"It wouldn't be a real vacation without the whole family. Please Uncle." Hay Lin put on a pair of puppy dog eyes along with Jade.

"Aw Jin, how can you resist these faces?" Yan Lin teased as Jade and Hay Lin continued with their puppy-dog eyes.

"Aiya… puppy-dog-pout gets Uncle every time." He sighed in reluctance. "Fine. I'll go."

"Yes!" Jade pumped her fist.

"God help us all." Cornelia grumbled.

"I will stay here." Tohru said as he began to pick up a box and walk away.

"Okay, I get the old guy doesn't wanna go, but why you?" Irma asked as she and the other girls walked in front of him.

"I mean swimming pools, whale watching, all the shrimp you can eat…" Hay Lin began to list.

"I don't like sea food." Tohru pointed out.

"Well, there's also pizza, burgers, hot dogs, and ice cream." Will added.

"I… cannot travel on a ship. I get… seasick." Tohru admitted, much to the girls' surprise.

"Oh… well, that sucks." Irma said in sympathy.

"You don't strike me as the type to get seasick." Cornelia told Tohru.

"You know there is medicine you can take for that." Taranee said.

"I have tried. Nothing helps." Tohru replied.

Jade began to think before an idea popped into her head and she snapped her fingers. "Maybe not _traditional _medicine. Uncle Jackie, could we pop over the Section 13 and borrow the Horse Talisman?"

"What?" Jackie did not expect that sort of request.

"Hey yeah… that'd be perfect!" Hay Lin exclaimed. "We could cure his seasickness!"

"I mean if the Talisman can heal broken bones and even cure diseases, it could definitely work with something like that." Taranee seemed to agree.

"Girls, the Talismans are too dangerous…" Jackie tried to protest.

"Yeah; maybe the Dragon, Pig, or Ox ones." Irma responded. "But how is the Horse dangerous? You literally can't hurt anyone with that one."

"In fact, it does the opposite of hurting." Cornelia pointed out.

"Jackie, I know you're always saying we have to take this whole magic-thing responsibly." Will began. "But this to help a friend enjoy some time off. And like they said, the Horse Talisman _heals, _it can't do anything dangerous. I promise it's the only one were gonna need, we won't take any of the others."

"Please Uncle Jackie." Jade pleaded.

Jackie saw the fair points each of them made and acknowledged that in the short time each of them have been Guardians, they were already starting to act very responsible; even Jade was beginning to mature quite a bit. So, he decided to agree.

"Alright." He said, resulting in smiles from all the girls.

"Yes!" Jade and Hay Lin both exclaimed at the same time.

"But _only _the Horse Talisman." Jackie insisted.

"We promise." Will smiled.

"Looks like you're going with us after all big guy." Irma playfully nudged Tohru who could only smile, actually being excited to go on a cruise and not puke his guts out for once.

* * *

Meanwhile; at a junkyard in Heatherfield, Valmont sat at a desk as he was currently holding auditions for new henchmen to join him in rebuilding the Dark Hand. But so far, all the applicants he met have been less-than-promising, to put it mildly.

A pair of female gymnasts flipped in the air, jumping from junkpile-to-junkpile, so far, they seemed pretty talented. That is until they cartwheeled into each other and landed on the ground in failure.

"Next." Valmont brushed off.

Up next was a man dressed in rodeo-type gear, with a whip, surrounded by multiple lit-candles. He attempted to snap all the flames out with his whip, but only got himself tangled in his own whip before failing over.

"Next." Valmont ordered.

The last one appeared to be a large heavy-weight boxer. Using his fists alone, he punched a broken-down-fridge and crushed it with only a few punches. Valmont seemed impressed at first, that is until the freezer door fell off and a bee flew around the boxer.

"Get away! Get away!" He seemed quite terrified of the tiny insect, much to Valmont's frustration as he simply slid his hand down his face.

"Master." Hak Foo ran onto the scene.

"Ah, the Black Tiger returns." Valmont acknowledged. "But where is the Golden Dragon?"

"There was a… complication. Chan was there…" Hak Foo revealed, and that alone was more than enough to get Valmont angry as simply threw the table he was at to the side in rage.

"Unbelievable! How is that I, Valmont, mastermind of the Dark Hand, one of the most influential criminal syndicates in history has been reduced to _this_!?" He exclaimed, gesturing at the junkyard they were hiding out in. "Scavenging for scraps like some pick-pocket, and the only hired help I can possible acquire is nothing short of pathetic!" He continued to yell as he pointed to the four henchmen applicants, who only hung their heads down in shame. "I cannot believe that I'm about to say this but… I miss Finn, Ratso, and Chow."

"Yo dude!"

Valmont and Hak Foo looked up toward a junk-pile to see a trio of teenagers wearing black with skateboards. The one in the middle was blonde with a few zits on his face, the one on the right was slightly taller with purple-dyed hair and a nose ring, with the one on the left was the largest present with spiky black hair.

"You seen the rest, now eyeball the _best_!" The one in the middle stated as the three rolled down on their skateboards and were able to easily deal with each of the four applicants with only a select few punches and kicks before standing tall over the pile of the defeated applicants. The blonde even swapped the bee away with a snap of his fingers. "So, we got the gig or what?"

Now it would seem Valmont and Hak Foo were interested. "And just what might your name be, young man?" The crime lord asked.

"They call me StrikeMaster Ice!" The blonde in the middle, apparently the leader introduced himself. "This here's my crew: DJ Fist and MC Cobra." He introduced the large one and purple-haired one respectively.

"That technique…" Hak Foo noticed their marital art skills even with just a few moves. "Where did you learn to fight like that?"

"I was just a pizza delivery guy…" StrikeMaster Ice began to explain. "And it all went done one night. I delivered a medium-ham-and-pineapple to this weird old man, and the fool stiffed me on the tip. But he told me this wild legend about the Zu Monastery floating above the clouds in the Far East. The monks started teaching me their extreme top-secret style of martial arts: it was off the hook! But then I got hipped to what the monks _really _wanted with me. They wanted to teach me the ways of peace! Well, I needed that bunk like a pizza needs a soggy crust, yo! They expelled me and DJ Fist and MC Cobra for bad behavior, now we would have kicked their ba-buddies! But… we just weren't good enough to beat em yet."

"The Zu Monastery… I've heard of that place." Hak Foo revealed. "Their martial art techniques are among the strongest in the world. And they would have become the most lethal of assassins, if it weren't for their meaningless talk of peace!"

"Ah see, this fool here gets it!" MC Cobra stated with a grin.

"So, we got the gig, boss man?" StrikeMaster Ice asked Valmont once more.

Valmont was none-the-less intrigued as he had an impressed smirk. If Hak Foo believed their martial arts prowess was something to beware, then perhaps these three had even more potential than his previous Enforcers.

"Let us put your skills to the test first." Valmont said. "I have a job for the three of you, if you pull it off, then you're hired."

"So, what's the job, yo?" StrikeMaster Ice asked with an eager grin.

* * *

It was Friday afternoon, and all the heroes were getting ready to board the cruise-ship for their vacation. While Will and the others were saying goodbye to their parents, Jackie was in the cargo-hold near the bottom of the ship as he and the Captain placed the Golden Dragon in a secure vault, which the Captain closed by pressing the correct buttons for the passcode, and gave a secondary lock with a swipe of a keycard.

"Twelve inches thick and absolutely state-of-the-art. Most banks don't have a vault _this _secure." The Captain said as he handed Jackie his own personal keycard.

"I am sure that it is more security than what is necessary." Jackie said with an assuring smile.

However, Jackie apparently didn't notice a small airduct opening from the ceiling as a certain green Passling climbed out just as Jackie and the Captain left before falling on the floor.

Blunk rubbed his sore bottom as he looked at the vault. "Big vault… means big stuff!" He tried to pry it open, only for the vault door not to budge an inch. He pulled harder, and harder, until finally he accidentally launched himself backwards on the floor. Blunk could only groan in annoyance.

* * *

The cruise ship was then on its way as it made its way from Heatherfield and into the open Atlantic Ocean. Already, the most of guests were relaxing on the upper deck, either lying on lawn-chairs or swimming in the pool.

Caleb leaned back against the railing, glancing over his shoulder to the ocean as Cornelia walked up to him.

"So, what do you think, Rebel boy? Vacation enough for ya?" She asked him playfully.

"Well… the ocean's bigger than any other body of water I'd seen in Meridian." Caleb pointed out. "But it's really too soon for me to say anything right now."

"Oh, don't worry, before day's end, I'm gonna show you a whole new meaning of fun." Cornelia assured.

"One thing I don't understand is why there's a pool here when you can just swim in the ocean." Caleb stated.

"Because the pool doesn't have sharks in it." Irma said to him as she herself swam in the pool.

Meanwhile; Yan Lin leaned back on one lawn-chair, soaking in the sun with a pair of sunglasses, while Uncle just sat with crossed arms under an umbrella.

"Hey, did you guys get a look at what's on the brochure?" Hay Lin asked as she, Will, Taranee, and Jade walked up. "Midnight roller blading, video arcade…"

"All you can eat breakfast, dessert twenty-four-seven…" Jade listed excitedly as well.

"They even have a spa and massage table!" Will pointed out. "I'm telling ya, this cruise is gonna be the best!"

However, Uncle wasn't impressed. "Waste of time. Will not even be able to get a good cup of tea."

"He drinks tea?" A new voice spoke up. One that was unfamiliar to Caleb and the WITCH-girls, but one _very _familiar to Uncle and Jade, the former gasped in horror as he and everyone else turned to see a short and elderly Japanese woman in red walking onto the scene alongside Tohru. "Thought Bily-goats only eat tin cans."

"Aiya!" Uncle stood up in alarm. "Thought dragon locked in vault!"

"Who's that?" Taranee asked.

"That's Tohru's mom." Jade answered, though she was also surprised as well.

"His mom?!" Will, Hay Lin, and Taranee exclaimed at the same time, even Caleb and Cornelia looked in surprise, as did Irma as she climbed out of the pool.

"That's Tohru's mother?" Caleb questioned.

"Apparently." Cornelia said.

"You know, I always thought Tohru's mom would be… you know… big." Irma whispered to Will.

"Tohru, why is your mom…?" Jade asked the large sumo.

"Um… Jackie said it would be alright to have her join us." Tohru answered.

Will tried to be polite, considering this woman was the mother of a friend of hers as she introduced herself. "Hello Mrs. Tohru. My name is Will, and these are my friends; we're all friends with Tohru."

Mrs. Tohru smiled slightly. "Well, a pleasure to meet you. Nice to know my baby has a friend with good manners."

"By the way, you've raised an _awesome _son!" Hay Lin pointed out.

"Seriously, he's one of the coolest guys we've ever met." Irma agreed.

Mrs. Tohru tried to act humble. "Oh, you girls are going to make this old lady blush. My baby is such a lucky boy to make friends with such polite young ladies."

Cornelia snickered. "Here that, baby Tohru?" She joked to the large sumo who only blushed in embarrassment.

As Jackie walked up onto the deck, he noticed Uncle walking past him. "Where are you going Uncle?"

"To life-boat! Row back to shore!" Uncle responded, not wanting to spend any amount of time with Tohru's mother. She was probably the only person he couldn't stand, aside from Daolon Wong.

"Good!" Mrs. Tohru honestly felt the same way towards Uncle herself. "I have better things to do than hang around with junk-seller."

"Excuse me, Mrs. Tohru, but the artifacts Uncle sells aren't junk." Taranee pointed out, trying to sound as respectful while also defending the integrity of Uncle's shop. "Many of his artifacts are genuine from even the Han Dynasty."

Mrs. Tohru seemed quite impressed by the bespectacled girl. "Hmm, girl knows her history. I could get along with this one, perhaps you'd like to play a little mahjong?"

That caught Uncle's attention. "You play mahjong?"

"No, I _win _at mahjong." She approached Uncle almost challengingly. "Five-time All-Kyoto finalist!"

"Hong Kong Community Center Champion, 1955!" Uncle challenged back. "Beat you with hand tied behind back!"

"Ha! Big talker! How about you put your tiles where your mouth is!" Mrs. Tohru shot back.

Cornelia and Irma couldn't help but snicker. "Looks like someone's been 'out-Uncled'." Irma joked.

"Now, now you two." Yan Lin approached the bickering old duo. "This is a vacation, a time to relax and have fun. Oh, and by the way, I happen to be the Heatherfield Community Center of mahjong champion, six years in a row." She challenged with a playful smirk of her own.

Mrs. Tohru didn't seem angry, but rather intrigued. "Oooh, than let's see what you got."

"Okay, now _this _I gotta see!" Cornelia stated.

"I might not know what this mahjong is, but I'm sure this will be entertaining." Caleb seemed eager to see someone knock Uncle down to size himself.

"Are those two always like this?" Will asked Jackie.

"Yes, but I feel those two might actually get along if given the chance." Jackie responded.

Jade scoffed slightly. "Yeah, the day that happens is the day Shendu gives out free candy to children." She noticed Tohru's face however looking rather green. "Hey, you okay Big T?"

"Um… you still haven't given me the Talisman…" Tohru held his stomach.

"Oh, right." Jade reached into her pocket and pulled out the Horse Talisman, which she handed to Tohru. The minute it entered his palm, he was briefly enveloped in a white glow as the Talisman's magic took effect. Tohru could no longer feel the motion sickness.

"Ah, that's much better." Tohru smiled.

"Well then, let the fun begin." Will said with a smile.

* * *

From then on, the day went on almost perfectly for our group of young heroes. Whenever they weren't eating or playing games, they were relaxing either by a pool chair or at the ship's own spa, where Cornelia spent most of her time. Nighttime rolled around and everyone else still seemed to be having a good time as they all had dinner in the ballroom.

"Okay, I have to admit, this is pretty nice." Caleb admitted as he helped himself to a shrimp from the bowl at the table that he Cornelia, Irma, Hay Lin, and Taranee were at.

"Told ya you'd have a good time." Cornelia smirked. "The spa was nothing short of perfection, my face is absolutely flawless, and I don't think my hair has ever felt so smooth."

"Better be careful I don't drip pizza sauce on your 'perfect' hair." Irma teased as she ate a slice of pizza.

"Come near me with that, and I'll personally toss you overboard!" Cornelia warned.

"And we haven't even been through half the stuff on this ship." Hay Lin stated. "There's just so much, I don't know if we'll be able to do it all!"

"Either way, I'm just glad that we have a whole weekend all to ourselves." Taranee said. "Nice break from fighting the Forces of Darkness."

"You know what else I love about this? That." Cornelia pointed to a nearby table where Uncle, Mrs. Tohru, and Yan Lin were at another game of mahjong.

"Ha! I win again!" Mrs. Tohru won the game.

"Teh, you _cheat _again!" Uncle accused.

"Now, no need to be a sore looser Jin." Yan Lin teased. "You never accused me of cheating."

"That is because Yan Lin plays fair." Uncle stated. "Spider-woman moves a tile every time Uncle sneezes!"

"You sneeze, _all _the tiles move." Mrs. Tohru shot back. "Bird-beak nose should have it's own zip-code!"

"Ooooh! Burn!" Irma and everyone else at her table laughed.

"Dang, Tohru, your mom is a total savage!" Will commented, almost laughing herself, as she sat at a separate table with Jackie, Jade, and Tohru.

"Tell me about it." Jade agreed. "Nothing's more entertaining than seeing Uncle and Mrs. T duke it out. She'd probably roast Phobos into submission."

"Now _that _I'd like to see." Will laughed.

Tohru smiled. "My mother is a good person, even if she can be a bit… pushy."

"Well I think it's a good kind of pushy." Will commented. "Oh and Jackie, thanks again for bringing us here, this is really great."

"You and the others deserve it, Will." Jackie replied. "You've all been working hard and are facing the sort of decisions I would never place on people your age, but every now and, you need to let kids just be kids."

"Well, I'm actually a teenager, but thanks." Will smiled.

"Yep, one cruise and no bad guys or magical stuff to ruin it." Jade commented as she reached for a shrimp on her plate, when a green hand from under the table reached to try and grab it instead and pull it under.

Jade, Will, Jackie, and Tohru were taken by surprise at first but it turned into annoyance as they looked under the tablecloth to see Blunk with the shrimp in his mouth. The minute he saw them, he gulped as he pulled the half-eaten shrimp out of his mouth.

"Eh…half-eaten shrimp for trade?" Blunk laughed nervously.

* * *

Meanwhile; outside the ship, a single motorboat made its way toward the ship. Once it was close enough, five grappling hooks were thrown up toward the railing. Valmont, Hak Foo, as well as their new recruits, the Ice Crew, climbed up onto the ship. Fortunately for them, nobody was outside, so nobody would notice the criminals as they quickly and quietly made their way to the lower levels.

Within a few minutes, Valmont and his four henchmen were in the cargo hold, right in front of the vault that contained their objective inside.

StrikeMaster Ice gave an impressed whistle. "Now that's a vault, yo."

"And within this high security barrier, lies an artifact of such value, we can not only rebuild the Dark Hand, but have enough to retire to a luxury mansion in the Caribbean." Valmont mused evilly.

"Vacation retirement, here we come baby! Let's crack this sucker open!" MC Cobra exclaimed excitedly.

"Vicious Ape Crushes Walnut!" Hak Foo yelled as he and DJ Fist both threw their fists at the vault door, only for their knuckles to crack as they both yelled in pain and held their sore fists. Valmont then tapped his own fist along the vault.

"Reinforced Titanium. So, it would seem the blunt approach is out of the question."

"No worries V-Man, me and the crew are experts and building and breaking things." StrikeMaster Ice said as he and MC Cobra took out a series of blow torches.

* * *

_The Next Morning _

Will had just woken up with a yawn, but was minorly surprised to see Tohru outside, hunched over the railing. She got up and outside to check up on him.

"You okay Tohru?" Will asked as she patted his back.

"Had a hard time… sleeping last night." Tohru muttered. "I… Tossed my crackers."

"Got sick? What about the Talisman?" Will asked in confusion.

"I must have lost it… I cannot find it." Tohru said.

"Lost it? But how? The rooms aren't that big and…" Will's eyes widened slightly before her eyelids lowered in annoyance. "Blunk."

* * *

The Passling known as Blunk held the Horse Talisman in his hand as he crawled through the air ducts. "Talismans make stuff go boom. Make safe go boom. Valuable stuff inside." Blunk said as he clearly mistook the Horse Talisman for likely the Dragon or even Pig Talisman. He crawled down through the vents before coming toward the exit, just above the safe down in the cargo hold, but Blunk gave a slight squeal in surprise upon seeing Valmont, Hak Foo, and the Ice Crew down below.

Hak Foo and DJ Fist were engaged in light-sparring while StrikeMaster Ice and MC Cobra continued to use their blow torches to try and break through the vault. Valmont however was starting to grow impatient.

"What is the hold up?" The crime lord questioned.

Ice and Cobra stopped when they realized they weren't getting anywhere. "This safe is harder than a frozen pizza, and those things are rock solid yo." Ice stated.

Valmont scowled slightly but noticed MC Cobra taking out a laptop. "And what are you doing?"

Cobra plugged the laptop into the electronic components with the vault. "Gonna hack into the vault yo."

"Hmm, didn't realize you were such an expert with technology." Valmont mused.

"I used to work in a computer store. Picked up a few tricks." MC Cobra replied. "But they'll know we're in the system, dog."

"Then I suppose we'll need to implement our back-up plan, then." Valmont said. "Cobra, continue to work. Hak Foo, Ice, Fist, we're taking over the ship."

Blunk gave an audible gasp. "Uh oh." He quickly climbed back the way he came through the air vents.

* * *

Will and Jade walked through the halls as they attempted to search for the thieving Passling. "I'm beginning to see why Caleb doesn't like him so much." Will commented. "First, he sneaks onto the cruise; then after all of us scold him, he goes ahead and steals the Talisman? What does he plan to do with it anyway?"

"I know I like the little guy, but he's kinda being a bit of a pest right now." Jade commented. "Which actually says a lot, coming from me."

Before the two could continue further down the hall, they heard some rattling sounds from the air vent on the ceiling above. They both gave surprised yelps as Blunk fell out of the airduct and on top of the two girls, knocking them down.

"Blunk!?" Will and Jade both exclaimed out of shock.

"Big trouble!" Blunk shouted. "Dark Hand man in green at vault! Trying to steal stuff inside!"

"Dark Hand man in green…?" Jade's eyes widened in surprise as she and Will exchanged looks of shock.

"Valmont?!"

* * *

Meanwhile, on the upper deck of the ship, Yan Lin walked alongside Uncle and Mrs. Tohru, the latter seemed to be in a good mood, considering Uncle lost virtually all the games they've played.

"Billy goat lose at mahjong, Chinese checkers…" Mrs. Tohru gloated toward Uncle, before turning to Yan Lin. "But I have to admit, you're not half-bad when it comes to gin rummy."

"No sucha can hope to beat this old broad at _any _card game." Mrs. Lin said confidently. "Anyone care for some blackjack?"

"Uncle prefer game of skill: shuffleboard!" Uncle stated.

The exchanged was being watched by Jackie, Caleb, and the other girls; most of which appeared confused.

"I can't tell whether they're getting along, or not." Irma commented.

"Tohru's mom is getting along with Grandma pretty well." Hay Lin observed.

"But she doesn't seem to like Uncle very much." Taranee pointed out as well.

"Well I like her." Cornelia said. "Nice to see the old timer get a taste of his own medicine." She smirked.

"I know I'm supposed to respect my elders and all, but I actually agree." Caleb said as he and Cornelia exchanged a fist-bump.

"Oh, I'm quite sure that deep down, they get along quite well." Jackie said.

"Yeah, whatever you say Jackie." Irma didn't seem so convinced.

They heard a groan as the group turned to see Tohru, still a bit seasick, lying on a pool-chair. "Hey Tohru, you okay big guy?" Hay Lin asked as she, Irma, and Taranee went over to help him.

"A little better…" Tohru said modestly.

"Sorry about the Talisman." Taranee apologized.

"Well it's not our fault that little slime ball snuck onto the ship." Cornelia said, referring to Blunk. "What's he even doing here anyway?"

"He's a Passling, they steal stuff." Caleb pointed out. "My money is on that dragon statue thing."

"I don't think we have cause for alarm." Jackie stated. "The vault is reinforced steel; I sincerely doubt a tiny thing like Blunk can break through."

"Come on, let' shit the buffet while breakfast is still up." Taranee suggested.

"Yes, ocean air always gives me a big appetite." Jackie agreed. "Eggs, bacon, biscuits…"

Suddenly, the group saw Tohru running toward the railing where he upchucked over the edge, much to the sympathy and/or disgust of his friends.

"Well… I think he's made room." Irma tried to put in a little bit of humor.

However, before they could continue, an announcement came over the intercom to the entire cruise. _"Attention all passengers, this is your captain. Please assemble in the ballroom for a mandatory safety presentation."_

Uncle gave a scoff. "Not yet had morning tea!"

* * *

_Ballroom_

By the time Jackie, Irma, Caleb, Uncle, Hay Lin, Taranee, Cornelia, Tohru, Yan Lin, and Mrs. Tohru all arrived in the ballroom, nearly all the passengers, with the exceptions of Jade, Will, and Blunk, had arrived.

"What kind of ship are they running?" Uncle questioned. "Captain calls meeting, no captain here!"

Everyone else looked around curiously and saw that neither the captain, nor any of his crew, were present in the ballroom.

"Doesn't seem like the captain very good at his job." Caleb pointed out.

"Maybe he's running late?" Hay Lin wondered.

"Doubt it, people like this are usually very punctual." Taranee shook her head.

Jackie had a bad feeling about this. "Something is wrong."

Suddenly Irma's cellphone vibrated in her pocket. When she answered it, she was surprised on who was the other line. "Will? Where are you? We're supposed to… wait what?! Did you just say Valmont?!"

That caught the attention of everyone else in the group, as did Valmont's voice playing through the intercom speakers.

"_I apologizes, ladies and gentlemen, but I am afraid that the captain is indisposed at the moment. But do not worry, the ship is very well under control. My control."_

This caused all the passengers to look in worry as all the heroes were especially surprised, so much so they only just noticed Hak Foo, StrikeMaster Ice, and DJ Fist enter the ballroom, close the door behind them, where Fist pressed a button on a small remote, and suddenly all the guests were trapped in a large laser-grid cage.

"That's right fools! The Dark Hand is in the hizzouse!" StrikeMaster Ice flashed a pair of rock-on devil horns with both his hands to gloat.

Caleb tried to kick the cage down, only to get shocked and blasted back into a table, where Cornelia and Yan Lin immediately ran to help him up. "What… what kind of cage is this!?" The young rebel questioned.

"A _laser_ cage." Jackie answered. "Can't break it."

"Looks like our mystery thieves are really the Dark Hand." Taranee guessed.

"Valmont must be getting desperate if he hired a pizza-guy as his new Enforcer." Irma pointed to StrikeMaster Ice.

"What makes you think he's a pizza guy?" Hay Lin asked.

"Well look at him. He looks like a pizza delivery guy." Irma replied.

"Whoever he is, he and Valmont are going to wish they never came here." Caleb stated.

"And just how do you plan to do that when we're stuck here?" Cornelia questioned.

"Maybe with a little… boost?" Yan Lin suggested as she pointed to Tohru who offered his hands to heave them out of the laser-cage as it didn't connect all the way to the ceiling.

Jackie and Caleb both exchanged nods as they ran to Tohru, each of them placed their foot in each of his hands before he leapt them over the laser-cage and toward the stage where all the instruments were, getting the attention of Hak Foo, Ice, and Fist.

"Chan!" Hak Foo stated.

"Looks like the bunnies escaped their cage, dog." StrikeMaster Ice said. "Well time to make rabbit-stew!" He and DJ Fist made combat stances as Hak Foo immediately leapt to Jackie.

"Angry Crow Takes Flight!" Hak Foo exclaimed as he leapt and kicked Jackie back into the instruments while Caleb was stuck dealing with Ice and Fist.

Caleb dodged and swerved to avoid the punches from DJ Fist before ducking under another punch and grabbing Fist by his wrist and hauling him over his shoulder, but he didn't get a chance to recover as StrikeMaster Ice delivered a flying kick to his back to knock him down.

"So pretty boy's got some moves." Ice observed. "But so does the Ice-Master, homie!" StrikeMaster Ice made his own combat stance, as Caleb got up and raised his fists.

Meanwhile, Jackie pulled himself out of the pile of downed instruments to face Hak Foo, only to find several stuck to his body via tangled straps; a drum on his back, a symbol in each hand, and a guitar on his chest, while also stuck to the symbol on his right hand. Jackie just barley dodged the next attack from Hak Foo.

"Rabid Crowd Mauls Rock Band!" Hak Foo shouted as he delivered multiple rapid punches to Jackie, but he was able to use the symbols as makeshift shields to block the punches before ducking to sweep his feet and knock Hak Foo down. But this left him vulnerable for DJ Fist to come in from behind, lift Jackie up by the drum attached to his back, which he slipped out of, before DJ Fist stuck it over Jackie, trapping him inside.

Meanwhile, Caleb found himself on the defensive end from StrikeMaster Ice's relentless assault. StrikeMaster Ice threw all sorts of punches and kicks out, which Caleb could barley block or avoid. One kick was enough to knock Caleb down, where the young rebel tried to roll and sweep his feet, but StrikeMaster Ice already leapt to avoid it just as Caleb got up, but while Ice was airborne, he delivered a kick to Caleb's chest, knocking him on to the outside of the laser-cage, shocking him before he fell to the ground in defeat.

Caleb and Jackie were both thrown back into the cage, where Tohru caught them and the others helped them back to their feet, while also looking in surprise at how quickly and easily Jackie and Caleb were defeated. They knew Hak Foo was more than skilled, but these new guys seemed almost as skilled as Jackie himself.

"Okay… so pizza guy's got some moves." Irma observed with a wide-eyed expression.

"I am going to be… very sick…" Tohru looked as though he was about to puke, but Hay Lin handed him a bag.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the vault, Valmont returned to see MC Cobra still working with trying to hack into the vault.

"Progress?" Valmont asked.

"Yo, this high-tech security is straight-up state-of-the art boss-man." Cobra responded.

"In English, please?" Valmont insisted.

"I'm working on it." Cobra translated.

* * *

Meanwhile, back in the ballroom; while everyone else was still stuck in the laser-cage, Uncle and Mrs. Tohru were playing a game of tick-tack-toe.

"I win." Mrs. Tohru said as she got three X's in a row. "Again."

"That's because you have X's. X's always win!" Uncle pointed out.

"Bah. I don't understand why Mr. Valmont is here, or why he's even doing something so apprehensible. He's such a nice man." Mrs. Tohru said.

"Nice?!" Irma, Cornelia, Hay Lin, Taranee, and even Caleb exclaimed at the same time.

"She's joking… right…?" Irma wasn't sure what to make of this.

"The guy's a freaking crime lord and a stalker on top of that!" Cornelia stated.

"That would be my fault…" Tohru confessed nervously. "I haven't told her… about Valmont's… less-than-pleasant business dealings."

"Now's about a good as time as any." Caleb pointed out with crossed arms and an irritated expression on his face.

"Yes… but she won't be happy to hear it." Tohru proceeded to walk to her mother and tell her the whole truth.

"Hey, Jackie, Grandma…" Hay Lin got both their attention. "I'm really worried about Will and Jade. I haven't seen them here."

"I'm sure they're fine, Hay Lin." Yan Lin assured her granddaughter. "Those two can handle themselves."

"Yes, but Valmont is incredibly dangerous, and his new recruits seem much stronger than the Finn and the others." Jackie acknowledged. However, he felt his own phone vibrate and looked to see Jade's number on the caller ID. He quickly answered it but spoke in a whisper. "Jade, where are you?"

* * *

"We're right outside." Jade whispered into the phone as she, Will, and even Blunk hid behind the door from the hallway that led into the ballroom. "We can see you. Don't worry, once Will and the others go all WITCH, we'll total these losers."

"_No Jade." _Jackie responded back as all three listened. _"There are too many people here, the girls cannot transform now."_

"He has a point. Secret identity, remember?" Will told Jade.

"Right." Jade winced slightly. "But we can still take em…"

"_No, I have a better plan." _Jackie said. _"You and Will find the communication's room and signal an SOS. Please hurry." _They heard Jackie hang up, probably to avoid looking suspicious to the guards outside.

"I think that's probably the best idea Jade." Will told the black-haired girl who was about to protest. "You see that cage?" They both looked past the doors. "It doesn't go to the ceiling. Jackie must have already tried that, but they beat him back. And if these guys can beat _Jackie, _maybe calling for help is a better option."

"Yes. Call for help. Good idea." Even Blunk agreed.

Despite wanting to actually fight, Jade knew they had a point, so she reluctantly agreed. "Yeah, that's always my favorite part of the movie, when the hero makes a phone call."

Will looked questionably at her friend. "What do you think this is? Die Hard?"

* * *

Blunk peaked past the door into the communication room and saw it was empty. "Coast clear." He said as the two girls quickly ran inside.

Jade found the communications and spoke into the phone. "Uh, hello? Mayday! Mayday! Can someone connect me to Section 13? It's a top-secret organization, probably not listed."

"Really?" Will looked at Jade questionably once more, causing Jade to wince.

"On second thought, just get me the Coast Guard."

* * *

_Cargo Hold_

As MC Cobra continued to work at the laptop, he was able to see an alarm on the screen as they were still connected into the system.

"Yo boss man, someone's trying to put out an SOS." Cobra told Valmont, who plugged in his own communications' device to hack into the communications line.

"_The ship's been taken over by some crazy thieving pirates!" _

"My dear Jade, I would thank you not to compare me to such uncivilized ruffians." Valmont responded with a smirk.

"_Uh oh…" _Jade just realized she was busted before quickly hanging up.

"Where did that call come from?" Valmont asked Cobra.

"Ship's radio room." MC Cobra answered.

Valmont accessed his own walkie-talkie. "Hak Foo…"

* * *

_Ballroom._

"Yes master." Hak Foo received the instructions needed. "Ice, we have a pest to squash."

"True dat, homie." StrikeMaster Ice acknowledged. "Yo Fist, you watch the rabbits. Me and Tiger Boy gotta hunt for a wild one."

DJ Fist nodded as Ice handed him the remote to the laser cage before he and Hak Foo left the ballroom; while Jackie, Caleb, and the other girls could only look with worry and concern for their friends.

* * *

Will, Jade, and Blunk ran down the hall back towards where their friends and everyone else were trapped. "Okay, new plan. We beat em up the old-fashioned way!" Jade stated.

"Or, we can just find another way to…" Suddenly they found their pathway blocked by Hak Foo and StrikeMaster Ice. Blunk gave another yelp as he took cover behind the girls.

"Yo, that is one seriously ugly frog, homie." StrikeMaster Ice noticed Blunk.

"I am afraid, that your path ends here." Hak Foo stated menacingly as he made a martial arts stance.

"Will…" Jade looked toward the red head nervously, with an expression telling her there was only one option.

"Yeah, I get it." Will understood there was only one thing to do if they were going to get out of this. She took out the crystal known as the Heart of Kandrakar and said two words. **"Guardians Unite." **

However, as she was the only one within proximity of the Heart, Will was the only one undergoing the flashy transformation that forced Hak Foo, Ice, even Jade and Blunk to cover their eyes being so close. When the light subsided, Will was in her Guardian form, where she didn't even give Hak Foo or Ice a time to react as she flew right at them and delivered two quick punches to their faces and knock them back.

"Jade, you and Blunk help Jackie and the others. I got these guys!" Will stated.

"No problem, kick their butts!" Jade stated as she and Blunk ran past them just as the enemy martial artists got back up.

"Yo, am I seeing things? Did that redhead just turn into a fairy?" StrikeMaster Ice questioned upon seeing Will's transformed appearances.

"It does not matter." Hak Foo stated. "She is the enemy, and we must pluck her wings!"

"Then come and get me, boys." Will had a confident smirk as she made her own Kung Fu stance followed by a hand wave, silently telling them to bring it on.

* * *

_Cargo hold _

"If anyone intercepted that ship-to-shore, the Coast Guard will be here very soon." Valmont realized just how much of a time limit he was on. "How soon can you have that vault open?"

"Not soon enough." MC Cobra replied. "New plan boss-man. Blow it up!"

"You fool!" Valmont stated. "If the haul is breached…"

"Yo, you got any better ideas?" Cobra questioned.

Valmont scowled slightly but realized that they didn't have the luxury to wait around, especially with Jackie Chan on the ship, even if he was trapped at the moment, he knew that Chan _never _stays trapped for long. "Do it."

* * *

"Octopus Fists of Fury!" Hak Foo flashed multiple punches at Will, but she was able to block them all, albeit leaving her on the defensive. "Snake Cuts Grass!" Hak Foo tried to sweep his feet, but Will flew up to avoid the sweep before she delivered her own airborne roundhouse to Hak Foo's face and knock him back.

However, she was later put on the defensive from StrikeMaster Ice's own relentless attacks as he delivered multiple punches and kicks, but Will's own strength in her Guardian form was strong enough to block them all with minimal damage, but when she threw out her own punch, Ice, caught it before putting her in an arm-lock.

StrikeMaster Ice gave a whistle. "Dang, you are one fine girl, Red. I could use a lady in the kick-butt department."

Will cringed in disgust. "Ew! No thanks!" She drove her elbow into his abs, forcing him to let go before she turned around to throw a punch at his face and send StrikeMaster Ice skidding across the hall. Will didn't get a chance to celebrate however as Hak Foo was back in the fray.

"Flying Bison Kick!" The Black Tiger landed a flying kick to Will's back and sent her rolling across the ground. Will pulled herself back up as she once again faced Hak Foo and StrikeMaster Ice. However, before the fighting could continue, a large explosion rang throughout the ship, which knocked all three of them off balance and onto the ground.

* * *

_Cargo Hold_

Valmont and MC Cobra looked past the cleared dust to see the vault door had been blown open completely, to reveal the Golden Dragon inside.

MC Cobra whistled. "Now that is one fine dragon. See V-Man, told ya it would be alright."

"Really?" Valmont questioned. "You count blowing a piece of the haul and flooding waters, alright?" He gestured to a large hole in the haul, which already had a large amount of ocean water flooding into the cargo hold.

* * *

Meanwhile; back in a separate hallway, Jade already regained her bearings as the alarm sounded throughout the entire ship. Blunk covered his ears.

"What is sound!? Too loud!" Blunk exclaimed, not liking the sound of the alarm.

"Probably bad news…" Jade guessed. She and Blunk were about to continue, when she heard a banging noise coming from the control room, which she just so happened to pass by. "Stay here, Blunk." She told the Passling before entering the control room, where she continued to hear the same knocking sound coming from a locked door.

Jade opened the door, and saw the Captain and his crew, Valmont must have locked them inside. "What's with all the sirens?"

"The ship is sinking!" The Captain stated. "The passengers, in a ballroom!"

"I'm all over it!"

* * *

Meanwhile; Will, as well as Ice, and Hak Foo heard the sirens ringing as well. "That can't be good." Will commented.

Hak Foo was immediately contacted by his boss. _"Hak Foo, you and the others meet Cobra and myself near the cargo hold immediately!"_

"Yes master." Hak Foo turned to Ice. "Time to go."

"Got it. We'll have to finish our date later, Red." StrikeMaster Ice told Will before he and Hak Foo ran off in another direction.

"Don't wait up." Will shivered before using the Heart of Kandrakar to turn herself back to normal and running back in the direction Jackie and her friends were trapped.

* * *

_Ballroom_

All the passengers, including the group of heroes, had all been knocked down from the explosion as they too heard the sirens going off. DJ Fist had already left as well, as he likely got the same notice from Valmont to meet up with the others.

"What's that noise?!" Caleb questioned.

"An alarm!" Taranee answered. "I'm guessing the ship's haul has been breached!"

"Oooh, yeah that sounds bad." Irma commented.

"Ya think?" Cornelia questioned irritably.

Will was quick to re-enter the ballroom, where she spotted a button on a corner generator. The second she pressed it, the entire laser-cage shut down just as Jade, the Captain, and the crew all entered the ballroom.

"Everyone! Calmly, to the lifeboats!" The Captain told all the passengers, but as opposed to calmly proceeding to the lifeboats, they all panicked and ran out past the captain and his crew. However, as everyone else left; The Chan Clan, WITCH girls, along with Caleb and Mrs. Tohru remained behind.

"There may not be enough time to evacuate." Jackie stated. "Jade, Will, did either of you find the Horse Talisman? Perhaps we can use it to heal the ship."

"I got it right here." Will took out the Horse Talisman, after taking it away from Blunk.

"Wait, maybe we can use this." Jade suggested.

"What do you mean?" Taranee questioned.

"I mean, since everyone else is busy evacuating, they won't be able to see a good old fashion J-WITCH vs. Dark Hand smack down!" Jade stated. "And after we take down Valmont and his new cronies, we just use the Talisman to fix up the ship."

"Huh, that's actually a pretty good idea." Hay Lin seemed on-board with it.

"I'm in." Caleb was more than eager for a rematch himself.

"What? But this is…" Jackie tried to protest.

"If we're full Guardian mode, Valmont and pizza-boy won't stand a chance. Plus, we got you and Tohru." Irma was also on-board.

"We can stop the bad guys _and _save the people. Seems like a win-win to me." Cornelia was in as well.

"If we move quick enough, we should get it done with no trouble at all." Taranee was on-board to.

"I'm in as well." Tohru said, much to Jackie's surprise as Will handed him the Horse Talisman to nullify his seasickness. He cracked his enormous knuckles for emphasis.

Jackie looked as though he was about to protest, until Uncle slapped him on the forehead as usual. "Ow!"

"Why is nephew so hesitant!? The more we stand around, the more ship sinks, and the more time Valmont has to escape! We must move quickly!" Uncle stated.

"I'm in to." Yan Lin also said. "I may be old, but this old broad still has a few tricks up her sleeve."

"I am in as well." Mrs. Tohru was even on board. "I have a few things I'd like to say to Mr. Valmont myself." She also flexed her hands, indicating it was not going to be a pleasant encounter.

Jackie saw all the points everyone made and realized it was probably the best idea, not to mention that the longer they waited, the more time Valmont has to escape and the more the ship sinks. He looked towards Will with a nod.

The redhead smirked as she took out the Heart of Kandrakar once more. "It's Guardian time."

* * *

The ship continued to sink, but despite that it would appear Valmont and his associates would escape as they had all made it to the deck of the ship, which was already on a semi-diagonal angle with the boxed Golden Dragon being carried by Hak Foo and DJ Fist.

"Not as subtle as I would have liked, but still, a job well done." Valmont told the Ice Crew. "I can see your skills being most beneficial to me as I reconstruct the Dark Hand."

"True that boss-man!" Ice stated. "So long as the pay is green."

"Sorry boys, don't think so!"

Valmont turned around in surprise to see an oncoming kick from the flying Will, before he was knocked back and slid into the other four marital arts villains, who slid back against the wall and looked in surprise to see the fully transformed and fully assembled WITCH, who stood along with Tohru, Caleb, and even Jackie and Jade.

"Hey, Valmont. Miss us?" Irma greeted tauntingly.

Valmont growled as he saw them. "Not as much as I will soon miss all of you. Destroy them!"

"Yo, we is about to fight a bunch of fairy girls?" MC Cobra questioned.

"Let's show these fairies that they is about to get iced!" StrikeMaster Ice said as he, MC Cobra, and DJ Fist made martial art stances along with Hak Foo.

"Angry Crow Takes Flight!" Hak Foo leapt straight for Tohru, while the Ice Crew engaged Caleb and the girls. Valmont was about to get up as well, only to come face-to-face with Jackie Chan himself.

"You just can't resist meddling in my affairs, can you Chan?" Valmont glared as he stood up.

"The Golden Dragon belongs in a museum." Jackie stated.

"Well then, perhaps I should finally put you where you belong, in the morgue." Valmont stated as he leapt at Jackie with a kick, which Jackie parried as they engaged in single combat.

DJ Fist swung multiple punches towards Caleb as he backed away towards a nearby pool-rod, which he picked up and used as a makeshift weapon to block and parry Fist's assault. "You don't talk much, do you?" Caleb questioned as DJ Fist grabbed the rod and lifted it, as well as Caleb over his head, before tossing him over his head, where he slid along the diagonal surface of the deck but regained his footing.

However, this appeared to leave him vulnerable for Cornelia to fly in with a kick of her own. Though she landed a solid kick in across his face, he recovered enough to grab her leg as she tried to fly away and tried to pull her into a punch, but she ducked under the punch and tried to grab his wrist with both her hands to try and haul him over her shoulder, but DJ Fist crossed his legs and tripped Cornelia over them where he gave a roundhouse to knock her back towards Caleb.

"Can't you just burry him or something?" Caleb questioned the blonde.

"Do you see any rocks or plants around?" Cornelia answered sarcastically. "We're on a ship in the middle of the ocean, genius! I can't manipulate what isn't around!"

DJ Fist stepped in front of them, where he cracked his neck and made a martial-arts stance, making the typical hand-gesture for them to bring it on.

"Well, guess we'll have to do it the old-fashioned way." Caleb observed.

"Time for those Kung Fu lessons to pay off." Cornelia attempted to make her own martial arts stance as well, which was pretty mediocre compared to Jackie's or even Will's.

Taranee flew as she threw down multiple fire-balls at MC Cobra, who back-flipped to avoid each one tossed in his direction. He backed-flipped towards the wall where he found a fire-extinguisher. He smirked as he took it and aimed it at Taranee.

"You need to cool of sweetheart." MC Cobra sprayed the substance at Taranee, just as she was about to throw another fire-ball, which not only extinguished her own attack but sent her crashing onto the ground. Before MC Cobra could even celebrate however, he was blasted by a stream of water by Irma.

"Take your own advice, pal. Oh, and by the way, nose-rings are for losers." Irma mocked as she pulled two large tentacles of water from the ocean on the other side of the railing, which she lashed out at MC Cobra, who flipped and dodge to avoid each lashing while he moved closer to Irma and threw out a kick, which Irma could barely avoid.

"Shark Devours Whale!" Hak Foo lashed out a pair of 'claws' at Tohru, which he tried to block by crossing his enormous arms but was still pushed back. Tohru tried to grab Hak Foo, only for him to leap over and behind Tohru. "Scorpion Stings From Backside!" Hak Foo delivered a punch to Tohru's back, enough to knock him back a bit. But Hak Foo was quickly blown away by a cyclone of air, courtesy of Hay Lin as she landed by Tohru's side.

"I got a question. Are those real martial arts moves? Or is he just making this stuff up?" Hay Lin asked Tohru who simply shrugged in response.

Hak Foo got back up after whipping his mouth, only to find something grab him from behind by the shoulder. He turned around just in time to see a foot incoming to his face, to knock him back.

"Black Tiger has no manners." Uncle scolded.

"Indeed." Yan Lin agreed as she appeared behind Hak Foo and swept him off his feet with a cue-stick from a shuffleboard game in her hands. She spun it around in her hands like an expert martial artist. "Perhaps we can teach him some."

Will once again face-to-face with StrikeMaster Ice, who couldn't help but smirk. "Aw, see Red couldn't get enough of the Ice-master. Not that I blame ya? I'm quite the catch, ain't I?" He was then punched in the face and sent hurtling into the railing.

"Yeah, a _rotten _catch. Think I'll toss you back." Will stated as she brushed her hands. StrikeMaster Ice however got back up.

"Okay, so Red wants to play rough eh? Well, I can play rough!" StrikeMaster Ice was on the attack with multiple punches and kicks, which Will continued to block and parry as she also attacked with her own strikes, which Ice was also able to block.

Jackie meanwhile found himself on the defensive from Valmont who threw every punch and kick at any possible opening, though Jackie was able to block most of the attacks. He intercepted one punch and crossed his leg over Valmont's to flip him over and onto the wall as the ship was starting to submerge even deeper. However, as Valmont picked himself up, he spotted an emergency axe underneath a glass container. He smirked evilly as he broke the glass and took out the axe, causing Jackie to chuckle nervously as he backed away, but found a life-preserver-rod attached to the same wall, which Jackie picked up and spun around like a staff before engaging Valmont once more as they clashed their respective tools.

DJ Fist threw leapt at Cornelia with multiple punches, but she flew in the air to avoid them, letting Caleb run in before he jumped and landed a flying kick to his chest to knock him back. But DJ Fist was able to get back up as he grabbed several boxes and threw them at the pair, which they were quick to avoid. Caleb saw a life-preserver sliding down to him on the diagonal angle they were on when he got an idea.

"Hey, catch!" He threw the life-preserver like a disk-weapon at DJ Fist; however he was fast enough to catch the make-shift weapon, much to Caleb's surprise. But this also left him open for Cornelia to quickly land in front of him and land a punch to his face, through the hole in the middle of the life-preserver, causing him to stagger before she delivered a roundhouse to his face, to defeat him and send him sliding back against the wall.

"Nice kick." Caleb told her.

"Nice throw." Cornelia responded as they both exchanged a fist-bump.

Meanwhile, Irma brought her hands together to generate a stream of water, which she shot at MC Cobra, but he was able to duck underneath it, while also grabbing the downed fire extinguisher he used to dispatch Taranee. Once he was close enough, he threw it out like a blunt weapon to Irma, knocking her down hard onto the floor.

"Yo, my momma always told me never to hit a girl, but I _love _it." MC Cobra raised the blunt weapon with the intent on finishing Irma off.

"Guess what? She was right!" Taranee suddenly flew in as she threw a fire-ball at the extinguisher, causing it to explode and completely cover him in the foam, and some even got into his eyes.

"Ah! I can't see! Can't see!"

"See this!" Irma blasted a point-blank stream of water right into MC Cobra and sent him crashing right into the downed DJ Fist.

"Gorilla Snaps Frail Twig!" Hak Foo raised his fists to crush Uncle, but he was able to catch him by the wrists before he quickly dealt a kick to Hak Foo's chest, sending him right into Hay Lin who already spun her body and generated a tornado around her body. Hak Foo was pulled into the vortex before Hay Lin stopped and sent Hak Foo flying right to Tohru where he responded with a punch, which also sent him rolling toward Yan Lin who finished it off with a strike of the cue-stick to his jaw, sending him crashing into the pile where Fist and Cobra were already at.

"Wow Grandma. You really got some moves." Hay Lin was very impressed with her grandmother.

"Shuffleboard. Who knew it was so invigorating?" Yan Lin commented with a smirk as she, Uncle, and Tohru all looked quite satisfied with the result.

Meanwhile, Will and StrikeMaster Ice both appeared locked in a duel of martial arts, and despite StrikeMaster Ice seeming to have more experience, Will's own superior strength seemed to more than even the playing field as they each punched, blocked, kicked, and parried every strike they dealt to one another.

"You know, it feels like we is having quite the dance, sweetheart." Ice flirted. "You move, and I move? See, we're meant for each other."

"Oh right, like you're such a romantic." Will was really starting to get annoyed as they continued to fight, however as they locked fists with each other, Will smirked. "Fortunately for me, I got a wild card up my sleeve." She twisted her arms to put StrikeMaster Ice in a strong grip. "And her name's Jade!"

Jade herself came flying in with a kick straight to Ice's crotch, causing him to squeal before he fell down to grab his lower-body-area before Will delivered an uppercut to Ice's jaw and send him flying and crashing into the growing pile of bad guys near the wall.

"Hope I didn't interrupt a lover's quarrel." Jade smirked to Will, who simply lowered her eyelids in annoyance.

"Not funny."

Meanwhile; the ship was almost completely vertical as it continued to sink; with Jackie and Valmont continuing their fight on top of the now-vertical wall as Jackie continued to use the rod he was holding to block Valmont's relentless axe strikes. As Valmont swung his axe down, Jackie blocked it with the rod caught underneath the blade as they continued to struggle against each other. However, Valmont proved to be strong enough as he spun the axe to pry the rod out of Jackie's hands, while simultaneously sweeping him off his feet.

Valmont approached the downed Jackie menacingly as he still held the axe. "I've waited a long time for this. For every defeat, for every _humiliation_!" Valmont raised the axe above and behind with the intent to strike "I will finally have my revenge!" He tried to swing down, only to find the axe had compeltley disappeared from his hands. "What?!"

"So, this is who you really are?" Valmont turned around in surprise to see Mrs. Tohru holding the axe with an angry and disappointed look on her face. "I had such a high opinion of you."

"Mrs… Mrs. Tohru! Wha… what a pleasure to see you again." Valmont laughed nervously as Jackie stood back up and crossed his arms.

"You can drop the act, Valmont." Mrs. Tohru told him. "I know who you _really _are. You forced my baby into a life of crime and lied about it! That is unforgivable!"

Valmont's expression became stone-cold. "I do apologize for that, but I would kindly ask you to step aside. I would rather not harm an elderly woman but if I must… UGH!" Valmont squealed in pain as Mrs. Tohru stomped hard onto his foot.

"That is for lying to me!" She then punched him in the gut to knock all the wind out of him. "That is treating my boy the way you did!" She punched him across the face with her left fist, followed by the same with her right fist before pulling him down by his tie. "And this is for making him fight a demon!" She delivered a final uppercut to his jaw, sending him flying and crashing into the defeated pile of Hak Foo and the Ice Crew, where they all groaned in pain.

Mrs. Tohru dusted her hands. "Words cannot express the disappointment I feel."

"Mrs. Tohru, I am sorry that I never told you about Valmont." Jackie apologized.

The elderly Japanese woman had an understanding look on her face. "I am disappointed in _Valmont_. But I can rest assured because I know my boy is with someone I can truly trust." She pinched Jackie's cheek, somewhat painfully, but he was nonetheless grateful.

"Hey guys." Irma called to them as she and the other Guardians hovered in the air while holding their friends. Will held Jade, Hay Lin and Taranee both carried Tohru, who also carried Uncle and Yan Lin in his arms, while Cornelia carried Caleb "I hate to interrupt your bonding moment but… the ship's still sinking!" She reminded.

"Right!" Jackie realized the predicament they were still in. "Tohru, the Talisman!"

Tohru searched his pockets but found that they were completely empty. "It's gone!"

Before anyone in the group could panic, they looked down by horizontal wall to see Blunk holding the Horse Talisman. "Blunk not have Talisman of blowing stuff up, Blunk have Talisman of fixing things. Blunk fix ship." The Passling placed the Horse Talisman on the wall of the ship. The second it made contact; the Talisman began to glow.

* * *

All the passengers on the lifeboat, including the Captain and his crew, looked in absolute awe as they saw the entire cruise ship straightened itself out and positioned itself correctly onto the water, as though it was never damaged or sinking in the first place.

"I don't believe it…" He looked in amazment and disbelief.

* * *

As all damage to the ship had been repaired, even the vault down in the cargo-hold looked as though it was brand new, the flying Guardians set down with their friends as they all celebrated and exchanged high-fives and fist-bumps with one another, and even a few cheers. Even Uncle and Mrs. Tohru were about to share a high-five but they looked in surprise, realizing what they were about to do, before they turned their backs to each other with crossed arms, causing Tohru to smile before he got nauseous once again and proceed to toss his cookies over the railing.

"Blunk save ship. Blunk save dragon!" The Passling sat on the head of the Golden Dragon, which he hugged and nuzzled his face against it.

"Ahem."

Blunk looked up to see Caleb, Cornelia, and even Jackie looking at him with crossed arms.

"No worry. Dragon too big to steal anyway." Blunk said as he handed Jackie the Horse Talisman, which he promptly handed back to Tohru.

Will looked to the spot where she expected the defeated Dark Hand to be but looked in surprise to find that they had vanished completely. "Guys, where's Valmont?"

"Over there!" Jade pointed over the railing where everyone ran to look as they saw Valmont, Hak Foo, and the Ice Crew in their own motorboat once more, zooming away at high speeds.

"Should we go after them?" Taranee asked.

"No, let them go." Jackie said. "We should probably explain to the captain how his ship miraculously repaired itself."

"Tohru." Mrs. Tohru got her son's attention.

"Mommy, I am sorry I lied to you about Valmont."

"I understand why you did. I don't blame you, and you'll always be my baby." She shared a hug with her son.

"Awe!" Hay Lin practically gushed, while everyone else smiled.

"Now, would you care to explain to me why some of your friends can transform and fly, and why there is a talking toad on the ship?" Mrs. Tohru still needed an explanation for that, causing the five aforementioned Guardians, including Jade and Jackie to chuckle nervously.

"Sorry big guy, but you're on your own for this one." Irma told him.

Tohru sighed with an expected smile. "It's a long story, Mother."

* * *

A few moments later; all the passengers were brought safely back onto the cruise ship. Jackie had told the Captain how Valmont tricked everyone into thinking the ship was sinking in order to get everyone off the ship so no one would get in his way to steal the Golden Dragon, fortunately the Captain was able to buy it. During this time, Tohru, Caleb, and even Yan Lin, explained to Mrs. Tohru the whole story about the Guardians, as well as Meridian, Phobos, and their mission to find the missing heir. Mrs. Tohru actually took it rather well and said how she'd be willing to help whenever they needed it, which everyone was grateful for.

Now the cruise continued on its journey as everyone on board could now finally relax; especially our heroes as Jackie, Will, Jade, and Cornelia were sunbathing on pool chairs, while Irma, Taranee, and Hay Lin swam in the pool, Tohru helped himself to a whole thing of pizza as he sat separately at a table and even Caleb took a relaxing nap in the sun.

"Ah, finally we can relax and enjoy the cruise." Jackie laid back.

"I'm gonna soak up every bit of this nice sun." Cornelia said in a relaxing tone.

"Hey, where's Blunk?" Will questioned. "Hadn't seen him since the Dark Hand took off."

"He wanted to 'stand guard' at the Golden Dragon, so I let him." Jade smirked.

* * *

Blunk was helping himself to large plate of shrimp as he sat alone in the closed vault, resting his back against the Golden Dragon. At least this way, nobody else could see him until Jackie opened up the vault once they would make it to London later in the afternoon.

"Blunk could get used to cruise." He said as he ate yet another shrimp and gave a loud burp.

* * *

"Hey, looks like miracles _can _happen." Jade said as they saw Uncle, Mrs. Tohru, and Yan Lin all sitting at a table across from the pool together.

"Guess Mrs. Lin managed to get them to actually be nice to each other." Will assumed.

Jackie smiled "It's nice to see those two enjoying each other's company for once."

Yan Lin held her both hands around the locked hands of Uncle and Mrs. Tohru. "One… Two… Three… Go!" She let go as they both proceeded to arm-wrestle with each other.

"Junk-monger weak as scrawny chicken…!" Mrs. Tohru struggled against Uncle.

"Toothless old bat got nothing…!" Uncle shot back as he continued to press.

Yan Lin only shook her head with a smile. "It's a work in progress."

**Done. **

**Thanks again for waiting, I hope you like this chapter. **

**So good news, the WITCH girls have met Tohru's mother and she has even proven to be a valuable ally to them. Don't worry, we'll see her again and she is definitely going to help quite a bit.**

**Bad news, Valmont has recruited the Ice Crew into his ranks, and they're bound to make the Dark Hand more of a threat than in the cannon series as they are skilled enough to even overpower Jackie and actually go on-par with the WITCH girls. **

**I hope you found this little chapter to be a nice little break from the WITCH plotline, which we'll get back to for the next chapter as a certain zombie-like villain returns with his personal bloodhound (hint, hint). See you then. **


	12. Big Trouble, Bigger Jade

**Hi everyone, how are all of you holding up with the coronavirus looming over us? I'm sorry if many of you are sick, have loved ones that are sick, or are being affected financially or suffering from any other form of stress due to the crisis were in. Hopefully this chapter will help to levitate some of the stress you're all feeling, it's supposed to actually be a fun episode that I've been looking forward to writing. So without further delay, let us begin. **

**Big Trouble, Bigger Jade **

_Meridian – Phobos' Castle_

"And the Guardians know nothing of this new portal?" The Dark Prince asked for confirmation as he helped himself to a cup of wine with Daolon Wong giving his report.

"I have sent my Dark Chi warriors through the veil for confirmation. Neither the children nor Chan know of its whereabouts." Wong informed. "And with Cedric remaining in hiding to allude the Earth forces, so only I will be able to locate the young rebel leader on Earth."

"Remind those three buffoons to be careful." Phobos warned. "I've underestimated Jackie Chan and his allies far too many times. Even without the Guardians, he is still dangerous."

* * *

_Earth – Vandom Residence _

Will was alone in her room, practicing some Kung Fu on a punching bag she recently bought. She focused more on her legs and kicks for a couple of minutes before taking a break to help herself to a bottled water.

"Will?" She heard her mother come in. "I got your report card and…" Mrs. Vandom looked in minor surprise to see the punching bag and Will herself covered in sweat. "What are you doing?"

"Practicing." Will answered in between breaths.

"Practicing what? Kick boxing?" Susan questioned.

"Eh, Kung Fu." Will replied. "Jade's Uncle Jackie is teaching me and a bunch of our friends. And you don't have to pay or anything it's free."

"Kung Fu?" Susan gave her daughter a questionable look. "Will, you're not picking fights, are you?"

"What?! No!" Will immediately stated. "Mom, it's just self-defense! Trust me, Jackie made that _very _clear. Plus, I get to hang out with my friends to, so it's a bonus."

Susan sighed. "Well, alright if you say so. Anyway, I got your report card; you got three Bs, but a C+ in Math."

"Yeah… sorry." Will winced. "You know Math's not my best subject."

"But, to be fair, it's still an improvement." Susan acknowledged. "But you still could do better."

"So… the movie? You did promise that if I didn't have any Ds, I'd get to go." Will asked.

Susan began to think slightly, mostly playfully as she smirked. "Alright." Will smiled before her mother turned to her with a stern-yet-playful expression. "But you stay with your friends at all times. Don't want anything to happen to my pink-perky-kung-fu-pumpkin."

Will's face turned red with embarrassment. "Mom…" She groaned as Susan just chuckled.

* * *

_Chan Residence _

"Come on…" Jade muttered as she pressed her back against the wall, her fingers crossed. Jackie held a ruler over the top of her head, before using a marker to mark her height. Jade turned around with a hopeful smile, only for it to dash as her height had only increased by about half-an-inch at best.

"No!" Jade exclaimed in disbelief. "The whole time I've been in America, I haven't grown _one _inch! I'm never gonna grow up, Jackie!"

"Patience, Jade." Jackie told his niece. "Enjoy your childhood while it lasts."

Jade scoffed. "I have a billion years of school left, I can't reach anything in the freezer, I never get invited in all these magic missions! _Way_ enjoyable!" She was about to walk out.

"Jade, where are you going?" Jackie asked.

"Gonna hang out with Will and the others. Take my mind off this." Jade answered before leaving.

Jackie shook his head slightly; he was glad to see Jade having some good friends, but so far, it looks as though they haven't helped Jade too much in the patience department.

* * *

Sometime later; Jade had meet up with Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay-Lin just outside the movie theater.

"Okay, I get it's an action-flick and all, but why do you wanna stay out all night?" Jade asked the girls. "You can see it any time you want, it's not like it's a one-time-showing."

"What part of 'staring Vance Michael Justin' do you not understand?" Cornelia asked.

"The part where he's no Clint Eastwood." Jade pointed out.

Will looked to Jade in minor surprise. "I didn't know you were into him."

"The guy's a badass, both in character and in-person. What's there not to like?" Jade asked.

"I hear ya." Irma smirked before putting on an Eastwood impression. "'You gotta ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky? Well do ya, punk'?" She and Jade both snickered.

"You guys can keep that old man." Cornelia said as she leaned dreamily against the poster for the movie. "I just cannot help screaming his name!"

"Over, and over; it's a movie-screen, VMJ can't hear you." Hay Lin pointed out.

"He hates being called VMJ." Cornelia replied.

"And broccoli, and girls who wear too much makeup." Taranee, Irma, and Hay Lin all said at the same time in a playful mocking tone.

"So, you guys are coming, right?" Taranee asked Will and Jade.

"Yeah, mom said it was okay." Will confirmed.

"Sure, why not." Jade shrugged.

"It's the premiere. Be prepared to spend six hours in line, with superfans." Irma said as the group began to walk away.

"Bundle up, bring cocoa, and ear-plugs." Taranee advised.

Cornelia leaned against the movie poster once more. "Our love will keep _me _warm."

Jade shook her head as she and Will walked slightly behind everyone else. Will noticed the mood she was in. "You alright Jade? You seem a little… grumpy."

The black-haired girl gave her titular scoff. "You'd be grumpy to if you learned you'd be stuck as a shrimp forever. I mean, I'm twelve years old and even Hay Lin is taller than me!"

"Wow, that does sound like it sucks." Will commented. "But, nothing wrong with being short; I mean Napoleon was about as tall as a baby."

That didn't seem to cheer Jade up. "Easy for you to say. You got magic powers that make you super tall!" An idea soon came to her. _'Bet I can do the same thing.' _She thought to herself with a small smirk on her face.

Meanwhile; Caleb looked around the alleyway behind the movie theater. "You sure this is where you smelled the portal?" Caleb asked as he moved a dumpster, only to find that the Passling named Blunk had completely vanished. "Blunk!" Caleb sighed, thinking he probably ran off to steal something. "All I smell is rotten eggs, which is actually an improvement over smelling you." He saw a rat on a dumpster. "You're not Blunk, you're too clean." Caleb said.

The young rebel leader looked to see Jade, Will, Irma, Hay Lin, and Taranee walking past the alleyway and decided to see what they were doing here, not noticing however that he was being watched by the Dark Chi Enforcers.

"Well there's the kid, let's get em!" Chow stated from around a smaller alleyway.

"Hold up, those fairy girls are here to." Finn stopped his friend from acting rash. "Let's wait till he's all by himself." The trio clung the wall and watched as Caleb approached Cornelia continued talking to the movie poster.

"Oh, you just haven't tried broccoli the way _I _make it, Vance Michael."

"I didn't know you and the poser were dating." Caleb teased, startling Cornelia.

"Caleb!" The blonde exclaimed. "Sneaking up on people might be okay in Meridian, but here it's just… like, rude!"

"I don't get why girls here fall for a picture of a guy pretending to be an elf." Caleb said upon seeing the movie poster himself.

"He is not an elf!" Cornelia replied. "He's a trendelbloten; a tribe of incredibly good-looking pixies who bravely battle the forces of Flundar." She said before walking away.

"Hey! I'd like to see Vance Michael what's-his-face tango with a giant lizard and a dark wizard!" Caleb exclaimed. "Cause… cause I do that, you know! Everyday!"

Suddenly, a taxi came zooming in through the streets, causing several other cars to veer or come to a halt to avoid being rammed into the by the out-of-control public transport before it spun and came to a sudden halt only three feet away from the startled Caleb. The passengers in the back ran out of the yellow car for their lives just as the window lowered to reveal a laughing Blunk in a hotel uniform.

"Yo! Want ride?" Blunk offered Caleb.

"Blunk you stole a… a taxi…?!" The young rebel honestly did not know what to make of it.

"Not steal." Blunk explained. "At hotel, hear people say, 'take taxi', so Blunk take taxi."

Caleb opened the driver's door, forcing Blunk to stumble out. "Caleb take taxi back hotel." Caleb said in a Blunk-impression as he sat down, with Blunk getting in the back. Even though Jackie had given Caleb a few basic instructions on how to drive a car, in the event of an emergency, it was still a bit more complicated than riding a horse or any other steed in Meridian.

"How do you start it again?" Caleb asked himself as he turned on the ignition and attempted to drive the taxi away, having a difficult time controlling the speed. This only served to surprise Finn, Ratso, and Chow as they stepped out of the alleyway.

"There he goes!" Chow exclaimed.

Ratso turned around to see the movie poster. "Oh hey, Vance Michael Justin's playing tonight."

"Dude, we got job! Focus on this VMJ guy after we catch the rebel-kid!" Finn told him.

"He hates being called VMJ." Ratso said as they attempted to run and catch the speeding taxi themselves.

* * *

_Silver Dragon _

"All night?!" Hay Lin's father exclaimed after the girl herself told her parents about the movie night she and her friends were going to. "You're only twelve!"

"But all the other kids' parents are letting them!" Hay Lin protested. "Even Jade's Uncle is letting her go and she's twelve to!"

"_All_ of them?" Her mother asked for confirmation.

"Uh… yeah…" Hay Lin tried, only for both parents to shake her head, causing Hay Lin to pout. This was going to be harder than she thought.

* * *

_Meridian _

"They spotted the rebel leader near the portal." Daolon Wong informed Phobos as the Dark Chi enforcers had returned after failing to catch Caleb.

"Why did the fools not follow him?!" Phobos exclaimed as he petted a snake-like creature curled around his arm.

"Uh… he took a taxi….?" Finn laughed nervously.

"Kid drove like someone out of a 'Die Hard' movie." Chow said.

"Speaking of movies, think we can get a break?" Ratso asked. "Vance Michael Justin's new movie is playing."

This only served to irritate Phobos as he used his own magics to increase the size of his snake-creature as he threw it to the ground. In less than a second, it was twice as big as Cedric in his own transformed state. Finn, Ratso, and Chow could only scream as the monster lunged down to bite and poof the Dark Chi enforcers.

"Those three are pathetic." Phobos muttered.

"My Prince, I shall take the Tracker and cross the veil myself." Wong said. "We'll find the boy and remove him from our side once and for all."

"Go but take reinforcements." Phobos told him. "Just in case you run into Chan and the Guardians again."

* * *

_Earth - Chan Residence_

After 'borrowing' a spell-book from Uncle's library, Jade sat in her room, attempting to prepare her own spell that should solve her current problem.

"It's not much, just two years." She said as she poured a little magical elixir into a vial to mix with another potion. "Hopefully by then I'll gain an extra foot at least." After mixing the spell thoroughly, it gave a small poof, indicating it was ready.

Jade then poured the potion on top of her head, where it soaked into her body. She looked at herself after a couple of seconds, only to see she was still the same age and height. "Oh, come on, work already!" She heard a knock on her door. "Just a second!" Jade quickly hid the spell-book and her supplies before opening the door. "Hey Jackie."

"Jade, if you're planning on going to this movie, you need to stay with the others at all times." Jackie told her.

"Since when do I ever go off on my own?" Jade asked, only for Jackie's eyelids to lower. "You know, when there's _not _a magical mission involved."

Jackie sighed. "Just be careful."

"Careful's my middle name." Jade said as she ran out the door.

* * *

Meanwhile; Caleb did his best to steer the taxi while avoiding crashing it into the other cars on the street. While he had the basic idea on how to drive a car, Jackie had yet to teach him road laws. It was really a miracle Caleb wasn't currently being chased by any police cars, even as he ended up circling back the way he came, right near the alleyway behind the theater before stopping to get outside and regain his senses, but also get out of the repulsing stench of Blunk's vomit that soaked up the entire back seat.

"More! More!" Blunk exclaimed, almost like a child getting off a roller coaster. "Blunk not throw up again! Promise!"

Caleb opened the backseat's door to let Blunk get out. "Ugh! I'll just call Jackie and have Section 13 take care of this…" He said in frustration, only to look in completely surprise as a portal suddenly revealed itself near the far end of the alleyway. Caleb could just barely see some silhouettes coming out of the portal, revealing themselves to be Daolon Wong, alongside the Tracker with his bloodhound, Sniffer.

Caleb immediately ran from the portal; positive he couldn't take those two on by himself. Blunk followed him, but not before grabbing the air-freshener from the taxi. "Snack for later!" He ran to catch up with Caleb just as the dark wizard and his minions stepped out of the portal fully.

"Run all you like boy." Wong sneered. "You cannot escape the Tracker!" He stated as Sniffer gave an eerie howl for emphasis.

* * *

_Lair Residence _

"Babysit?! But the premiere's tonight!" Irma protested as her parents were ready to leave the house.

"So's the patrolman's ball." Mrs. Lair told her daughter as she and her husband walked out the door. "Have your brother in bed by eight."

Irma could only sigh in reluctance as she saw her eight-year-old brother Chris zoom through the living room and the kitchen on his tricycle, crashing knocking down multiple items all across the floor, even running over Irma's foot, much to her irritation.

"Ugh, I gotta find some sucker, I mean _sitter_, to cover for me." Irma was already on the phone when she heard her doorbell ring. She opened it to reveal Caleb and Blunk outside, much to her surprise, and it looks like they both ran half-a-marathon.

"Saw your parents leave…" Caleb said, out of breath. "Just need a place… to hide… a couple hours…"

Irma smirked, having found her sucker. "Come right in." She closed the door as she saw Caleb looking out the window. "What happened to you?"

"Nothing much, we just have a Meridian search party after us." Caleb answered causally.

"What?!" Irma exclaimed, getting back on her phone. "I better warn the others!"

"No, no, no. I ditched them." Caleb assured as Chris continued to ride his tricycle around the living room.

"You sure?" Irma asked.

"Please, the Tracker?" Caleb dismissed. "Even with Daolon Wong, it's like outwitting a six-year-old." Right on cue, Chris ran over Caleb's foot on his tricycle. "Ow!"

"Chris, Caleb; Caleb, Chris." Irma introduced.

"Your doggy stinks." Chris said upon seeing Blunk sitting at the coach with the TV remote in his mouth.

"Blunk isn't a dog Chris, he's a…" Irma said as she saw Blunk accidentally turn on the TV and hide behind the coach, apparently never having seen a TV before. "A costumed-miniature-clown, yeah!" She wrote down a brief list of the rules and handed it to Caleb. "Bedtime's at eight, here are the rules, bye-bye!" She immediately left the house, leaving Caleb and Blunk alone with the toddler as he ran over Caleb's foot once again.

* * *

All the other girls had met up outside the Silver Dragon, waiting for Hay Lin to come out and join them.

"You guys are lucky your mom and Uncle Jackie aren't as strict as Hay Lin's folks." Taranee told Will and Jade.

"She's fine, so long as my grades are good." Will said.

"Yeah, same with Jackie." Jade agreed. "Just as long as I 'stay with the group'." She used air-quotes for emphasis.

Hay Lin quickly hurried out the door. "Hurry! Before they change their minds!" She exclaimed as she and the other girls ran down the sidewalk toward the theater just as Hay Lin's parents came out.

"Hay Lin, be careful!" Her father called to her.

"Be safe! And stick together!" Her mother called out as well.

"I'll be fine!" Hay Lin called back as they continued to run, but quickly stopped once they heard Hay Lin's cell phone ring, which she answered. "Hello? Dad?" She turned around to see her father with his own cell phone.

"Just checking."

* * *

The six girls made it to the tether to find dozens of other kids all in line, and nearly every single one of them wore some kind of costume like a knight, a prince or a princess, a troll, or some other form of magical creature; with the exception of seemingly all the J-WITCH.

"Uh, we're the only ones who didn't dress up." Will observed.

"Correction, _you're _the only ones." Cornelia took off her coat to reveal a costume of a fancy dress that a princess would wear.

"Somehow, I'm not surprised." Jade's eyelids lowered.

"Yeah this girl never misses a chance to be a princess." Taranee agreed.

* * *

_Lair Residence _

As Blunk found himself practically hypnotized by the television, Caleb did his best to keep the brat known as Chris from destroying the house any further as the eight-year-old played hockey with the fishbowl.

"Whoa, Chris! Enough fish-hockey!" Caleb stated. "You know what's fun?! Sitting still!"

Chris only smirked evilly as he pucked the fishbowl into the air, which Caleb was able to barley catch while sliding on the floor, only for Chris to jump and skate off his back.

* * *

Meanwhile as the six girls continued to wait in line, Hay Lin's cell phone rang yet again, which she promptly answered. "Yeah Dad." She said impatiently. "I'm even _more _okay than I was nine minutes ago." Will however felt a very familiar pulsing in her coat pocket, which caught Hay Lin's attention. "_Your _Mom."

But it was not Will's cell phone pulsating, but rather the Heart of Kandrakar. "Worse. It's the Forces of Darkness calling."

Not far down the road, Sniffer tried to catch the trail of the young rebel as he sniffed the street, and soon found a familiar scent coming from underneath a car; which Daolon Wong telekinetically lifted with his dark magic as the Tracker picked up the item in question, the half-eaten air freshener from the taxi Blunk and Caleb used before.

"And what do we have here?" Wong mused with an evil grin.

"The scent of the passling…" The Tracker answered with a hiss.

Daolon Wong snickered. "I chose wisely when I made you. I created you from the bodies of the greatest hunters and trackers in all of Meridian, and now you serve my whim. Now, find that Passling. Wherever he is, the young rebel will surely be."

Meanwhile; Will showed the Heart of Kandrakar to the other girls, where they all gave gasp as they saw Wong, the Tracker, and Sniffer in it. "Is that who I think it is?" Will asked in surprise.

"Quick, hide!" Taranee stated as she saw the dark wizard and his zombified tracker turning around the corner. The six girls turned their backs, hoping to blend in with the crowd so that neither Daolon Wong nor the Tracker would notice them as they passed by. Fortunately, since Sniffer was focused solely on Blunk's trail, neither his master nor the dark chi wizard noticed the six girls. Though a few of the kids in line gave some awes and complements on their 'costumes' which they elected to ignore as they walked past the streets.

"Don't know what the Anti-Uncle and zombie-boy are up to, but it can't be good." Jade observed.

They saw the villains turn the corner. "What's in that direction?" Cornelia asked.

Irma's eyes widened. "Um… Caleb and Blunk… babysitting Chris."

"You left your little brother with _them_?!" Will exclaimed. "With a dark wizard and zombie-tracker on their tail!?"

"Now that's just cruel." Taranee said.

"To Caleb and Blunk." Hay Lin joked, adding a little bit of humor in this otherwise tense situation.

* * *

_Uncle's Rare Finds _

Jackie had walked into the back room of the shop where Uncle and Tohru were working on a spell. "I just got off the phone with Captain Black; we might have a possible location narrowed down on where Cedric may be hiding in Heatherfield."

"We've also been trying to do the same thing with Sensei's spells." Tohru informed Jackie. "But we've been unsuccessful so far."

"Daolon Wong must have placed his own Dark Chi spell to protect Cedric's location from good magic." Uncle assumed.

Jackie soon heard his cell phone ring and quickly answered it. "Hello? Will? What is… wait… what!? Why are they…? Why is Caleb with…? Okay, okay; we'll handle it." He hung up. "Daolon Wong and the Tracker are in the city; they are heading for Irma's house where she left Caleb."

"Aiya! What is foolish rebel boy thinking?!" Uncle exclaimed.

"Daolon Wong and the Tracker together, that can't be good." Tohru was already on his feet.

"Then we had better get going before they reach their destination." Jackie said as the trio left the shop.

* * *

Will just hung up her phone. "Alright, Jackie's on his way."

"I also called Grandma and she said she'd try to get to Caleb and help him out with Chris." Hay Lin hung up her own phone as well.

Jade gave a slight scoff. "We can just take care of those two guys ourselves. Just Guardian up and heyah!" She gave a roundhouse kick for emphasis.

"Uh Jade, you're not a Guardian, remember?" Taranee reminded, but once she got another good look at Jade, the bespectacled girl looked in minor confusion. "But… is it just me or… have you gotten taller in the last few minutes?"

"Wait… I am?" Jade asked in elated surprise as she pulled out a tape-measure, which she just so happened to have on hand, and quickly measured her own height. "Two whole inches! I'm getting older! My grow up spell's working!"

"Grow up spell?!" Will exclaimed in surprise as the other girls looked at Jade in shock.

"You cast a spell on yourself?!" Taranee questioned.

"What? You like Clint Eastwood so much you wanna be just as old as him!?" Irma questioned as well.

"No! Just a few years!" Jade stated. "I'm sick of constantly being treated like a kid!"

"Because you _are_ a kid, Jade!" Will told her, sounding somewhat disapprovingly. "Can't believe you actually mess with magic! I mean, you know how dangerous that stuff is!"

"And you actually _want _to be older?!" Hay Lin questioned as well. "I'd kill to be kid for a few more years!"

"Well, I mean not everyone can pull of such a fab body." Cornelia said, sounding quite shallow, only to get elbowed in the arm by Will. "OW!"

"Look forget it, alright!" Jade stated. "Now that I'm older, I can help kick evil butt!"

"We already called Jackie." Will told Jade, who was now just as tall as Will herself. "He, Uncle, and Tohru are on it."

"Yeah; between them against Wong and the Tracker, I think they'll be fine." Taranee said.

"Awww." Jade pouted as she simply looked away with crossed arms.

* * *

Daolon Wong walked alongside the Tracker as Sniffer continued to follow the trail near a large construction site. "We are getting close." Wong sneered. "Nobody can hide from my Tracker."

Suddenly, a van zoomed in from around the corner and came to an immediate halt in front of the villains; the doors quickly opened to reveal Jackie Chan, Tohru, and Uncle as they got out and ready for a fight.

"Whatever it is that you two are looking for, you will not find it!" Jackie stated. "Leave Earth now or face the consequences!"

Sniffer growled, along with the Tracker himself. However, Daolon Wong merely chuckled. "So, Jackie Chan chooses to stand in our way yet again. Unfortunately for you, this wasn't entirely unexpected. **Gan! Ren! Chui!"**

Daolon Wong had summoned the Dark Chi enforcers by his side, but they weren't the only ones. All the shadows in the area moved in from all around and surrounded the group before they materialized to reveal at least two dozen different Shadowkhan. But it didn't stop with just them; Wong threw his scepter up in the air, creating a massive plum of dark blue smoke as he had actually summoned the massive cyclops beast known as Gargoyle who roared for emphasis.

"Aiya…" Uncle uttered in fear as even Tohru gulped.

"Bad day." Jackie muttered.

* * *

_Lair Residence _

The house was in a state of complete chaos as Chris jumped up and down on the coach in the mess of a living room, at the same time, Blunk ran around the room, carrying an expensive-looking vase.

"Blunk, put that vase down!" Caleb exclaimed, only to look even more frustrated as Chris ran with Blunk riding on the boy's shoulders and balancing the vase on his head. "Chris, put that Blunk down!"

The two however ended up tripping and sent the vase flying through the air, which Caleb was able to barley catch before it would shatter on the ground. There was a sudden knock on the door.

"Guys cool it, that could be the tracker and his wizard pal." Caleb told the two.

While Blunk ran to hide, Chris actually looked excited. "A wizard!? Yay! A wizard's here! A wizard's here!" Chris ran to the door and opened it.

"No!" Caleb tried to stop him, but when Chris opened the door, it was revealed to actually be Yan Lin.

"Are you a wizard?" Chris asked.

"Worse." Yan Lin answered as she walked into house. "A grandma."

* * *

Back at the movie theater; Will looked into the Heart of Kandrakar and saw the trouble Jackie, Uncle, and Tohru were all in; practically facing a small army of enemies.

"Uh oh, they're in trouble." Will said as the other girls saw it as well.

"What are we waiting for then?! Let's go help them!" Hay Lin stated.

"And loose our place in line?!" Cornelia questioned.

"Seriously?" Irma, Taranee, and even Jade's eyelids lowered.

"I'm just saying, do we _all _have to go?" Cornelia asked.

Will sighed as she rubbed a hand down her face. "Fine, you can stay Cornelia, just so you can keep an eye on Jade."

"What?" Jade questioned.

"Don't act so surprised; you cast a spell on yourself just to make yourself older! How do you know there aren't any side effects?!" Even Taranee seemed to agree.

"You if you keep aging till you're as old as Grandma!?" Hay Lin added.

"Or you age even further until you're dust in a jar." Irma pointed out.

"But I can…" Jade tried to protest.

"No arguments, Jade." Will said sternly. "Cornelia, make sure she doesn't run off. Handcuff her to your wrist if you have to."

"Yeah, alright." Cornelia kept a firm grip on Jade's wrist.

"Awww." Jade moaned. "You're starting to sound like Jackie."

"I'll take that as a complement." Will smirked as she, Hay Lin, Taranee, and Irma left the line and turned down one alleyway as Will took out the Heart of Kandrakar and said the magic words once more…

"**Guardians Unite!"**

* * *

Jackie, Tohru, and Uncle ran into a large and vacant construction site as the behemoth known as Gargoyle kicked down a fence; allowing the Tracker, Dark Chi Enforcers, and the Shadowkhan to pour in; where the most agile all jumped and landed in front of the Chan Clan trio to engage in hand-to-hand combat.

Several Shadowkhan punched and kicked at Jackie, forcing him on the defensive as he tried to block and parry their attacks; while several more attempted to pile on top of Tohru, as he tried to shrug them off with is physical strength.

Uncle took out his blow fish to blast and zap any Shadowkhan that approached him into oblivion with chi magic, only to be blasted back by a bolt of dark chi magic.

"Novice." Wong sneered as he approached the downed wizard. "If your master cannot defeat me what hope do you have?" Suddenly Uncle's foot shot up to Wong's face, knocking him back as Uncle was back up on his feet.

"Because old dark wizard doesn't have knowledge of martial arts." Uncle stated. "Now, do you want a piece of Uncle?" He made a combat stance as Wong narrowed his eyes and opened fire with his dark scepter.

Meanwhile; Tohru and Jackie found themselves back-to-back as they tried to push back against the Shadowkhan; only to be blasted back by Ratso with his magic hammer to send them both flying onto the ground. Suddenly Tohru's wrists were ensnared by a magic flail courtesy of the Tracker as he pulled the large sumo down onto the ground while Sniffer pinned Jackie down and growled.

"Heh, heh, nice doggy…" Jackie laughed nervously. "Do you want a treat?"

However, before Sniffer could even bite down onto Jackie, Will suddenly flew in from behind her Guardian form, grabbed the hound by his tail and spun him around before sending him flying into a group of Shadowkhan that vanished. Hay Lin also came in to blow a gust of wind and knock Finn, Ratso, and Chow back while Irma shot her hands to blast Tracker back with a stream of water as Taranee flew in and threw a fireball at Gargoyle's eye, forcing the giant monster backwards, deeper in the construction site.

The four Guardians flew down and helped Jackie and Tohru get back up. "Sorry to make you do our work for us, Jackie." Will said. "We didn't know it be so bad."

"There is nothing wrong with asking for help." Jackie assured. "Thank you for coming."

"Hey, it's what friends do!" Hay Lin beamed.

"However, we are going to have a talk about you laving Caleb and Blunk at your house, Irma." Jackie said seriously to the girl who winced.

"Yeah, my bad." Irma said.

Tohru looked around and noticed that two certain girls were missing from this group. "Where are Jade and Cornelia?"

"Don't ask." Taranee replied.

* * *

Back at the theater, as Jade and Cornelia continued to wait in line, the self-proclaimed older girl hadn't stopped complaining.

"This is so unfair! I'm finally older, so why doesn't everyone take me seriously?!" Jade questioned.

"Because you messing around with magic just to get older was incredibly reckless!" Cornelia replied.

Jade scoffed. "You're one to talk miss 'Oh, I just have to fall in love with rebel boy because I'm so pretty blonde'!"

"First, I do not sound like that!" Cornelia argued. "Second, that's got nothing to do with this! At least I'm not stupid enough to play with magic!"

"You grow plants and move rocks with your mind! Of course, you play with magic!" Jade argued back.

"I only use magic in a fight!" Cornelia exclaimed. "You think _I'm _shallow, I'm not the one who's trying to skip over her childhood just to feel appreciated!"

"Well I…" Jade's retorted didn't fall through as she suddenly gripped her stomach; causing Cornelia to look in worry.

"Jade are you alright?" The blond disregarded their argument and kneeled down to help her groaning friend. She helped her back up to her feet as Jade continued to hold her stomach. "What did you _drink_ the spell or something?"

"No I poured it on my head…" Jade groaned. "I… I really don't feel so good."

"And that's what we've tried to tell you." Cornelia muttered as she tried to help Jade move through the line, much to the frustration of the other kids. "Sorry! Sorry! Got a sick friend!" She made it to the door and knocked on it, which an administrator opened.

"The movie's not ready yet."

"I know, but my friend isn't feeling well, we just need to get the bathroom!" Cornelia stated as Jade continued to groan.

"Alright, bring in her in." The administrator let Cornelia bring Jade inside.

Cornelia helped Jade into the women's bathroom, which fortunately didn't have anyone else inside. Once they were in, Cornelia turned around to lock the door, but as she did, Jade's body began to glow with a faint orange aura. When Cornelia turned around, she could only gasp as she saw Jade had grown; not in age, but in size, and was already fifteen feet tall.

"Cornelia… do I look older to you?" Jade asked, more so nervously as she looked at her own body.

"No…. but you're definitely…. Bigger." Cornelia stuttered as Jade looked into the mirror to see her changed stature.

Jade gave an annoyed scoff. "This is so not the growing up I had in mind."

Cornelia rubbed her forehead in annoyance. "Maybe you should have actually _read _the spell before you used it?"

Suddenly, Jade's body began to glow again, causing her to back up as he actually began to grow in size even more; but since the bathroom itself was so small, Jade ended up tripping and falling back, causing the wall to break down as Jade stumbled backwards out of the building and into the alleyway behind the theater.

Jade chuckled nervously as Cornelia ran out through the hole and looked in even further shock to see Jade was now at least thirty feet tall. "Heh, heh, woops?"

Cornelia groaned even further until a flash of blue light caught hers and Jade's attention, as they looked further down the alleyway to find an open portal, the same one Wong and the Tracker used to travel to Earth.

"Well, at least we know how the bad guys came here." The giant Jade said as she stood back up. "Now come on, Jackie and Will…"

"You're not serious, are you?!" Cornelia exclaimed. "You're not even supposed to…"

"I know I'm not a Guardian or anything!" Jade exclaimed. "But don't you think it be easier if I used this to help our friends! Every time I want to help; I always hear you guys and Jackie saying, 'it's too dangerous', 'you're not old enough', is it wrong that I want to help?!"

Cornelia sighed. "There's nothing wrong with that. It's just… look, Jackie's your uncle, your family, so of course he's going to be protective of you. You want to help, that's fine, but you also have to be _responsible. _And that means you can't sneak off or use magic as a shortcut. That's kind of what growing up is."

This seemed to calm Jade down, as she sighed and realized Cornelia was right. And it wasn't just with this, she had been doing this all the time where she snuck off to try and help Jackie, and while she has helped at times, it's more so gotten her into even _more _trouble than normal; case in point being stuck in the Netherworld with Shendu's siblings.

"Okay, maybe I can try to be a bit more… responsible." Jade admitted.

"Good." Cornelia smiled slightly. "And the first step is turning your little mishap into an advantage to help our friends."

"But, what about…?" The giant Jade asked.

"It's just a movie." Cornelia dismissed. "Even if we miss the premiere, we can just see it some other weekend or something; friends are more important." The blonde smirked. "Now, what do you say we go kick some evil butt?"

Jade smirked back as she offered her large hand for Cornelia to climb on as Jade put her older friend on her right shoulder. "You even need to ask?"

* * *

Back at the construction site; Will parried the punches and kicks from some nearby Shadowkhan as Jackie did the same while the two came back-to-back when they were surrounded by at least ten of them. The two exchanged looks as they nodded right when the Shadowkhan all leapt at them; Jackie ducked as Will flew slightly over him for a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree roundhouse kick with her superior strength to knock all the Shadowkhan back.

Meanwhile; Uncle and Daolon Wong both appeared to be locked in a duel as Uncle blasted good chi magic from his blowfish while Wong blasted dark chi magic from his scepter and the two recited their respective chants; but the duel came to an end as Gargoyle loomed over Uncle and roared at the old man.

Uncle gasped as he was forced to end his duel early and quickly run to avoid being crushed by Gargoyle's massive foot. Wong laughed as he witnessed Gargoyle chasing the rival wizard.

"Yes! Crush him Gargoyle! Crush that fledgling novice into paste!" Wong's laughing was cut off by a blast of water from Irma that sent him skidding across the ground.

"You wanna talk about paste, just look at your skin." Irma commented. "I mean, have you even heard of moisturizer?" She then flew up to assist the fleeing Uncle as she quickly flew in front of the pursuing Gargoyle to blast a stream of water in the monster's face and cause it to stumble back; but this only served to irritate Gargoyle as it swatted it's hand to knock down Irma into Uncle on the ground.

At the same time; Tohru had picked up a steel pipe as he used it to parry the strikes from Chow's own staff, while on the defensive as Hay Lin flew down to blow a gust of wind to literally blow Chow back.

"Hay Lin, duck!" Tohru pulled Hay Lin down in time to avoid being decapitated by Finn's spinning blade which he threw out before it returned to Finn like a boomerang.

Hay Lin breathed a huge sigh of relief. "Thanks, Big T."

"Need a haircut?" Finn cracked as he and Ratso charged at them both. However, Taranee landed in front of them to halt their advance as she threw a series of fireballs at them, while she also controlled the flames themselves and manipulated them to form a ring of fire around the two Dark Chi enforcers and trap them.

"What's the matter? Can't take the heat?" Taranee joked.

However, the flames were quickly blasted away as Ratso slammed his hammer onto the ground to create a large shockwave that not only blew away the flames, but also knocked back Taranee, Hay Lin, and Tohru quite a bit.

Meanwhile; as Will and Jackie dealt with the last of the Shadowkhan; the two suddenly found themselves entangled by the flail belonging to Tracker as he pulled it down to slam both of them onto the ground as Sniffer pounced at them to keep them pinned, while Jackie and Will each wrenched a free arm to keep the snarling and biting hound at bay.

Daolon Wong had recovered as he approached the entangled pair while Tracker kept a firm grip on his flail. "A valiant effort, but all in vein I'm afraid." He opened his hands to reveal a series of fanged mouths in the palms as dark magic began to swirl around them. "I may not get the young Rebel, but with the power of the Heart of Kandrakar flowing through my veins, I shall become invincible! Not even Phobos will defy me!"

However, the ground began to shake, getting the attention of everyone present as they all stopped their fighting only to look in shock to see Jade, who was now fifty feet tall, enter the construction site, with Cornelia riding on her shoulder.

"Say hello to my friend Flicker." The giant Jade knelt down to literally flick the Tracker away and send the zombie flying and crashing into a pile of steel girders.

With the Tracker disposed of, Will and Jackie were able to free themselves from the flail that entangled both of them; but they could only look in absolute shock at how big Jade had was. They were joined by Tohru, Irma, Uncle, Hay Lin, and Taranee who shared jaw-dropped expressions as they saw Jade help Cornelia down onto the ground.

"Aiya…" Uncle muttered.

"Got that right." Hay Lin said with a nod.

"Jade…?" Tohru muttered as his jaw had dropped.

"I'm guessing that 'grow up' spell was taken in a literal sense." Irma muttered to Taranee.

"Uh… Cornelia…?" Will hoped the blonde had some kind of explanation.

"She wouldn't stop growing." Cornelia merely shrugged.

"Jade! What happened to you?!" Jackie practically screamed.

Daolon Wong growled. This was unexpected, but he wasn't about to give up yet. "Attack!"

"Talk later!" Jade said to Jackie as she saw the Dark Chi Enforcers running straight at her with their weapons at the ready.

"You're going down, Queen Kong!" Finn exclaimed.

"The bigger they are, the harder they…" Ratso was cut off as he, Finn, and Chow were literally stomped out by Jade's foot.

"Just call me, Jadezilla." The fifty-foot Jade said with a smirk. She looked towards the recovering Tracker and Sniffer that joined Daolon Wong. "Might wanna clear out, tiny!"

"Oh? Perhaps you should be picked upon by something your own size." Wong challenged as Jade and the others heard some large steps from behind, where they all turned around to see Gargoyle roaring challenging at Jade.

"Right, forgot about him." Hay Lin winced.

Jade however wasn't the least bit initiated. "I got this, guys!" She stated as she made a Kung Fu stance. "You take his little buddies."

"Jade…!" Jackie tried to protest.

"Hey, how about we argue later and focus on the bad guys right now!" Cornelia exclaimed as the Tracker roared and unleashed a large swarm of bats from his cloak at the group, which Taranee and Hay Lin tried to force back with blasts of fire and wind respectively.

Jackie sighed. "Alright, but we are going to talk about this later."

"Yes, we are." Will gave Cornelia a small glare before she used the Heart's power to transform Cornelia into her Guardian form before the five Guardians, Jackie, and Tohru charged at the Tracker and Sniffer; leaving the giant Jade to duke it out with Gargoyle.

"Okay handsome, this town ain't big enough for the both of us." The fifty-foot Jade said as she ran at Gargoyle who tried to punch and grab her, but Jade parried each strike with her own martial art skills before landing a solid kick to knock the monster back slightly before Gargoyle roared and grappled with Jade, before she ducked underneath its grab to deal yet another kick into Gargoyle's chest and actually knock it down.

At the same time; the Tracker's swarm of bats flew around Irma, Hay Lin, and Taranee as they took to the air and kept the swarm at bay with blasts of their respective elements while Will landed a flying kick on Tracker himself to knock it back. Jackie ran to try and help, but Sniffer was on the attack once more as the hound lunged at Jackie, but Jackie had grabbed a steel pipe from the ground which Sniffer bit on and tried to pull it out of Jackie's hands. Jackie tried to wrestle with the hound as Sniffer seemed to be about as strong as three pit bulls put together.

The Tracker flew out its flail again to entangle Will's ankle and pull her in, but she didn't struggle alone as Tohru came in to grab the chain and used his own strength to pull Gargoyle in; but Gargoyle appeared strong enough to resist Tohru's pull, albeit being dragged along the ground as Tohru appeared to be slightly stronger even as Will came in to help and pull on the chain.

Daolon Wong growled as he saw how easily his own forces were about to be overwhelmed, however, before he could even attack, he turned and looked in surprise to see Uncle preparing a spell.

"_Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao! Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao! Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao!" _Uncle held a dried lizard in one hand over a brick in the other as he hoped from his left foot to his right and back-and-forth.

Wong realized what he was doing. "Stone magic?" He telekinetically pulled his own brick into his own hand. "I shall immobilize you first!" Wong began to mimic Uncle's actions, holding his scepter over the brick he was using, reciting his own dark chant, while hopping from his left foot to his right and back to his left.

As they both activated their spells, a bolt of green chi magic shot from Uncle's brick, right at the same time a blue bolt of dark chi magic shot from Wong's brick. Both bolts intercepted each other before reflecting back onto the respective users. This resulted in both Uncle and Wong being immobilized in the exact same stance, standing on their left and right leg respectively as they could only move their eyes and couldn't even talk.

Meanwhile; the giant Jade was forced back to an old and abandoned building as Gargoyle ran towards her, but the large girl pulled the fire-escape from the old building and used it as a makeshift weapon to slam against Gargoyle's face. "In case of an emergency, use the fire-escape!" She pressed forward with her make-shift weapon, forcing Gargoyle back as Cornelia landed behind the monster.

Cornelia then used her own powers to raise two large roots which entangled each other, creating a trip-trap that Gargoyle tripped back on as Jade pressed forward, causing the giant monster to fall back onto a wrecking ball vehicle. The vehicle itself was crushed, but the wrecking ball was sent flying up briefly before it fell back down and crushed the large stone hand on the beast; reducing its entire right hand to rubble as Gargoyle roared in agony.

"Oooh!" Cornelia winced. "That's gotta hurt."

"Well, this _is _a construction site." Jade cracked.

At the same time; Hay Lin had created a large tornado around herself, Taranee and Irma to protect themselves from the bat swarm, but their defense turned into an offense as Irma and Taranee threw their water and fire into the tornado, creating a powerful and deadly vortex to kill all the bats that were surrounding them.

Jackie meanwhile was pinned to the ground, using the steel pipe to keep the snarling Sniffer back, but he wouldn't have to worry as Irma flew down to blast Sniffer back with a stream of water.

At the same time; Will and Tohru continued their game of 'tug-of-war' with the Tracker; but the combined strength of the red-haired Guardian and the sumo was enough to overpower the Tracker, and with a single heave, the zombified hunter was pulled in as Tohru and Will both dealt a single punch to the Tracker's face and send the monster flying along with Sniffer into the immobilized Daolon Wong, knocking down all three of them, and even the immobilized Uncle as well.

Will, Jackie, Irma, Taranee, Tohru, Cornelia, and Hay Lin, as well as the fifty-foot-tall Jade approached the downed group of villains as Jade picked up the immobilized dark wizard.

"Now I know what you're thinking punk." Jade began, putting on a Clint Eastwood impression. "'But they're the good guys, they wouldn't hurt a fly'."

Cornelia flew up beside Jade with a smirk as she spoke next. "But, seeing how many times you've tried to kill us, and as you are right now, you probably got like one good spell left in the tank; you gotta ask yourself a question. 'Do I feel lucky?'"

"Well, do ya, punk?" Jade asked as well.

Wong used this as his cue, and while he was still immobilized, he used his only remaining spell to teleport himself, Tracker, Sniffer, and even the single-handed Gargoyle away from the area.

"Guess he wasn't feeling lucky." Jade observed. "But I thought you hated Clint Eastwood." She said to Cornelia.

"I said I liked Vance Michael Jackson; I didn't say I _didn't _like Clint Eastwood." Cornelia smirked as she and the fifty-foot-tall Jade exchanged a high five.

"Well, looks like we won!" Hay Lin stated.

"Yeah, but we probably missed the movie." Will observed.

"Perhaps then you could likely provide an explanation as to why my niece is fifty feet tall?" Jackie asked.

"It's my fault, Jackie." Jade said for the others.

"How about you explain it as I concoct an antidote." Tohru proposed.

"She isn't the only one." Irma said as she picked up the still-immobilized Uncle.

"Actually, can we leave him like that?" Cornelia asked. "I think l like him better this way... OW!" She felt a slap on her forehead as Uncle was somehow able to deliver his traditional dope-slap to her, despite being immobilized.

* * *

Sometime later; Tohru and Yan Lin were able to make a chi-spell antidote that not only returned Jade to her normal size, but also restored Uncle's maneuverability. Jade and Cornelia told Will where to find the portal Wong and the Tracker used to get to Meridian, which she sealed, while Cornelia used her Earth-powers to fix the hole in the wall Jade accidentally made as she grew in size. By the time Jade had given an explanation to Jackie; the group were outside Irma's house with Caleb as she looked inside to see her younger brother finished cleaning up the mess he had made.

"What'd you do? Cast some old chi spell on him?" Irma asked Yan Lin.

"Nah, ancient grandma trick: cookie bribe." Yan Lin answered. "Which I also used to ensure that he tells your parents that it was _you _who watched him all night, instead of Caleb."

"Thanks, I… OW!" Irma felt her forehead where Uncle dope slapped her.

"What was girl thinking?! Leaving reckless rebel at home with Forces of Darkness tracking him?!" Uncle questioned.

"Who are you calling reckless… OW!" Caleb was also dope-slapped by Uncle.

"How was rebel boy foolish enough to think he can outwit dark wizard and tracker, while also carrying a smelly passling?!" Uncle exclaimed, referring to Blunk who only smiled apologetically.

"Sorry I got a little… big for my britches guys." Jade apologized before she too was dope-slapped by Uncle. "OW! So that's what it feels like." She said, as that was actually the first time Uncle had given her a dope slap.

"Magic is not to be trifled with!" Uncle stated. "It is used to battle evil, not pubescence!"

"I'm sorry I guess I just… felt if I was a little older, you guys would take me seriously." Jade confessed.

Jackie sighed. "Jade I…"

"I know, I was irresponsible, and it wasn't the first time." Jade acknowledged. "Cornelia already told me. But I promise, I'm gonna be try to be more responsible from now on."

Jackie could tell that Jade was honest and truly meant what she said. "And perhaps I can stop being so strict from time-to-time. So, if you promise to be truly careful, I may let you accompany me and the girls on certain missions."

"Really?!" Jade exclaimed with a hopeful smile.

"As long as you promise to be careful." Jackie said before turning to the others. "And that you all promise to watch over her as well as yourselves."

All six of the girls looked at each other with smiles and nods before they raised their hands in the form of a scout's honor salute. "We promise." They all said at the same time.

"But first, perhaps we could enjoy that movie you missed." Jackie proposed. "I'll take you all tomorrow morning and I'll even buy the tickets."

That earned wide smiles from all the girls present. "Uncle Jackie, you're the best!" Hay Lin exclaimed as she, and all the others, including Jade, practically leapt at Jackie with a group hug; while Tohru, Yan Lin, Caleb, even Uncle and Blunk had small smiles.

**Done. **

**So, how'd you like this chapter? To be honest, the original episode was not one of my favorites, which doesn't necessarily mean I **_**hated **_**the episode, I just felt they could do better; so I chose to add some JCA elements to mix things up; such as 'Jadezilla' vs Gargoyle, which resulted in the monster getting his hand crushed. (Along with a Clint Eastwood line thrown in just for fun). **

**Oh, and now you know the Tracker's origins: he is a zombie, made from the corpses of Meridian's best hunters and trackers and brought to life by Daolon Wong's dark magics, Frankenstein-style. And it seems that Wong has ambitions of his own as he tried to gain the power of the Heart of Kandrakar for himself, as opposed to giving it to Phobos.**

**I enjoyed writing this chapter and I hope you enjoy reading it just as much. Stay safe and stay healthy out there. Peace out! **


	13. Framed

**Hi everyone, thanks again for waiting. So, here we are with another fun adventure with the heroes of J-WITCH. I hope everyone is doing alright with this pandemic we are all facing, and it is my hope that this chapter will help alleviate any stress you may have. It makes me so happy to have this story acquire so many followers. So, without further delay, let's get started. **

**Framed**

_Meridian – Phobos' Castle _

It seemed apparent that Prince Phobos had a taste for gothic art style, as it seemed his own personal gallery was filled with statues of gargoyles, similar to a gothic cathedral, along with many paintings with dark and bleak outlooks on life, it was quite disturbing. But it seemed apparent that one of these paintings was still enjoyable to a certain Passling who pulled one from the wall and actually began to lick it.

"Blunk! Put that back!" Caleb said in a harsh whisper as he hung from a rope, a lantern in his hands.

"Blunk have taste for art. Yellow, yum!" Blunk licked his chops.

"We're gathering information not hideous paintings! Now hurry up before…!" Caleb soon gasped as he saw multiple shadows moving across the ground and walls on their own. "Too late." The shadows materialized to form a group of five Shadowkhan.

Before they could even attempt to attack, Caleb quickly grabbed Blunk and swung on the rope to swing out the closest window, flinging them both outside. Once out, Caleb held onto Blunk with one arm, who was still holding the painting he was 'tasting', and holding the rope on the other, running down the wall. However, one Shadowkhan brandished a katana to cut the rope, causing Caleb and Blunk to fall. Fortunately, they weren't far from the ground and landed safely, albeit roughly, with the painting falling onto Blunk's face. They continued to run even as the Shadowkhan threw a hail of shurikens at them.

* * *

_Earth – Heatherfield – Vandom Residence _

Jade, Irma, Cornelia, Hay Lin, Taranee, along with Elyon and Alchemy, had all been invited to Will's for a sleepover. Everyone was in their pajamas and ready for a good night, save for a small detail about the party that Will had yet to tell them about.

"Will, when you invited us for a sleepover, you didn't mention a pop quiz." Irma said as everyone was given a notebook.

"Sleepovers and schools are two things that should _not _mix together! Under _any _circumstances!" Jade stated firmly.

"Yeah, we're supposed to be watching horror movies, eating popcorn…" Hay Lin began to list.

"…And bradding each other's hair!" Alchemy added.

"And telling me how many boys like, like me." Cornelia also added.

"What are best friends for?" Elyon also said.

"I sort of… kinda volunteered to be in charge of this year's Fall Carnival." Will said, much to the surpise of her friends.

"You know how much work that is?" Taranee questioned.

Will winced while putting on a nervous smile. "Okay, here's the thing. That's why… I sort of… kinda… volunteered you guys to be my committee! Please!"

"Say what?!" Jade exclaimed.

"We have been sleepover jacked!" Irma also exclaimed.

"Jade, what did you do to her?!" Cornelia questioned. "She's turning out to be like you!"

"Hey, at least when I do that kind of thing it doesn't involve school! Unless it's _skipping _school. Kinda like what I'm about to do with this rip-off sleepover!" Jade was already beginning to pack her things, with the other girls right behind her.

"Right behind you!" Alchemy said.

"See ya!" Hay Lin also said.

"I'm outta here." Elyon already had her bag packed.

"Can we go, please?" Cornelia questioned irritably.

"So outta here." Taranee was also up.

Will winced, having an idea that this was coming. A part of her did feel bad about doing this without their permission, but she still needed their help. She took out her cell phone. "Don't make me call Uncle on you guys!"

That caused almost all the girls to stop in their tracks.

"Oh, pulling the U-bomb, on us?" Irma questioned.

"That's a low blow, Will." Even Hay Lin didn't quite approve.

"She's… gonna tattle us to her Uncle?" Elyon asked.

"No, _my _Uncle. Everyone calls him Uncle." Jade clarified.

"And trust me, you do not want to get on his bad side." Cornelia added.

"Guys look, I'm sorry okay. But I really need your help. I need a theme by Monday!" Will tried to put on a pair of puppy dog eyes. "Please!"

The doorbell suddenly rang. "Pizza!"

"At least she ordered food." Hay Lin said.

Will shook her head and walked up to the door. "Nuh uh, but maybe my mom ordered…" She opened it only to find Martin, with his own pajamas and bunny slippers, a board game in his hands, with a pizza. "A nerd." Her eyelids lowered.

"Hey Irma, your boyfriend's here!" Jade teased, resulting in Irma scowling as Martin walked inside the apartment.

"In the time-honored tradition of maletharios, I'll be your official pajama-party crasher!" Martin announced.

"Pervert much." Alchemy groaned in annoyance as everyone else was less-than pleased.

"Martin, get your bunny slippers out of here! Don't make me call Jade's Uncle!" Irma stated.

"And you do _not _want _him _showing up here!" Taranee added.

"Ah, my PJ-passion-flower, I brought pizza and my favorite board game. Here, hold these." Martin handed the game and pizza to Irma before flashing a camera to take a picture of all the girls. "Wait till the guys see this!"

Two seconds later, Martin was literally thrown out of the apartment. However, the girls kept the camera, which Taranee worked to delete the picture he took of them, while the others helped themselves to Martin's pizza.

"Hmm, not bad." Jade said, eating a slice.

Will took a look at the board game. "Knights, Naves, and Newts?"

"The games dweebs play." Irma explained.

"And they're about to play them in the school parking lot!" Will exclaimed, already having her chosen theme for the carnival.

* * *

_The Next Morning_

All eight girls had gathered together at the parking lot of Sheffield Institute as Will was already envisioning the carnival. "A medieval fair! Get it?! Booths with games and olden-days food!"

"A renaissance fair huh? Cool! I always wanted to go to one of those!" Jade stated, already getting excited for it.

"And maybe one of those nay-pole thingies." Elyon suggested.

"Maybe some dragon cut outs?" Alchemy also suggested.

Cornelia gave an excited gasp. "And 'who's the fairest damsel?' contest!"

"So, we get to tie you up over a pot of boiling water? I'm cool with that!" Jade exclaimed, causing Cornelia to scowl. "What? You said 'damsel'." She teased, resulting in the other girls laughing, and Cornelia to sulk even lower.

"Oooh, we could put a jousting tournament over there!" Irma suggested.

"Cause nothing says 'fun' like knocking a boy off a horse with a stick." Taranee said with a smirk.

"I was gonna suggest an epic sword fight! But that works to." Jade said.

"Costumes!" Hay Lin exclaimed. "I can design all those retro bodices and witchy-ware!"

"Liking it!" Will practically sung. "Now to con the shop teacher into building it."

* * *

_Uncle's Rare Finds _

"AIYA!" Uncle exclaimed as a large fire erupted from his cauldron, which was swiftly put out by Jackie with the use of a fire-extinguisher, causing him, Uncle, and Tohru to breath a huge sigh of relief, only for Uncle to deliver a dope-slap to Tohru's forehead.

"Ow!" Tohru felt his head for a minute.

"Uncle told you a thousand times! Three pairs of dried bat wings too much!"

"Sorry sensei." Tohru apologized.

"Uncle, is all of this really necessary?" Jackie asked. "I feel as though you yourself haven't gotten much sleep."

"There is little time to rest." Uncle replied. "So long as the true heir to Meridian remains unidentified, she is still in danger from the Forces of Darkness."

"But you yourself said we cannot track her with a chi-spell. So why are we… OW!" Jackie felt a slap on his forehead as well.

"When did Uncle say he was making a _locator _spell?!" The old man questioned. "This is a _protection _spell!"

"If in the event we find out who the missing heir is, this spell will prevent those of dark nature from touching her." Tohru explained. "It'll be the best way to keep her safe, without directly involving her."

"Because there is also a risk of her being overwhelmed with shock of this revelation." Jackie saw their point. "Yes, that's probably a good idea." He soon heard his cell phone ring. "Hello? Jade? Oh… alright, I'll be right there." He hung up. "Jade and the girls need a ride to the museum, I'll be right back." He turned around to leave.

"I'm really glad Jade is making more friends." Tohru smiled. "She's always been telling me how much trouble she had at her old school."

"Do not just stand there! Get cracking!" Uncle stated. "Good Jade is making friends, yes. But we must be prepared to protect missing heir from Forces of Darkness!"

* * *

_Meridian – Phobos Castle _

Daolon Wong walked through Phobos' personal gallery as he gazed at many of the dark and bleak pieces of artwork with an amused chuckle. "So young and yet so firm in darkness. The Prince surely has good taste, I'll grant him that."

"I'm so glad you approve."

Wong was startled slightly as he turned around to meet the suspicious graze of Prince Phobos as well. "My Prince." He straightened himself out with a bow.

"Is there a reason you are here? And not in your own personal study trying to locate my sister?" Phobos questioned.

"There is only so much I can do, dark prince." Wong explained. "Powerful spells surround her that prevent me from locating her. As much as I hate to admit it, Cedric's current position on Earth is the best chance we have at finding her before our enemies do."

"Just be certain that finding her remains your top priority." Phobos reminded. "You should understand by now just how much we cannot underestimate said enemies."

"Yes, my prince." Wong said in a small growl, tired of playing nice to Phobos. But of course, patience was among one of his strong suits, so he could endure it. He cast a gaze at a certain painting that stood out among the rest; a painting of a large town that seemed somewhat bright when compared to the other gothic pieces of work in his gallery. "Prince Phobos, is there a reason you've kept this particular painting?"

Phobos turned back to see the painting in question. "I do not see how that is of any concern of yours."

"The artist was foolish enough to paint a picture representing hope, so I imprisoned him in his own painting. You could have simply destroyed the painting and been done with him entirely." Daolon Wong said.

"Elias was not a traitor and had committed no crimes against me. I see no reason to end his life when he has done nothing wrong." Phobos said as he and Wong gazed at the image of a man with black hair and a sad expression on his face, where a single tear fell down from his eye, despite it being inside a painting.

* * *

_Earth – Heatherfield – Museum _

Jackie had driven Jade, Will, Irma, Cornelia, Hay Lin, and Taranee to the museum so that they could get a look at some of the medieval paintings to make sure their designs for the fair was at least somewhat accurate. Jackie himself provided some advice for the fair as he was an archeologist and had studied some medieval locations and artifacts before, which was more than helpful.

"Why are we here again?" Cornelia asked.

"Just making sure I got the middle ages right for the fair." Hay Lin answered.

"Well if it's wrong, we don't have much time to change it." Will said.

"Considering what you've already told me of your designs so far, I'd say you've done a good job already so far." Jackie told them.

"We'd better." Jade said. "We busted our butts putting everything together!"

"I just hope Elyon and Alchemy come through with those balloons and dragon cut outs." Irma said before her eyes widened in surprise as she looked at her watch. "Oh crap! I'm late for jousting practice!" She ran out as fast as she could.

"Yeah, we should go to." Will added.

Jade however noticed something on the large painting that they were studying. Something rather odd. What she, nor did anyone else around her, realized however, was that this wasn't just any ordinary painting. It looked almost exactly like the one in Phobos' personal gallery. The one where Daolon Wong had trapped its own artist inside.

Jackie noticed his niece's odd behavior. "Jade? Is something wrong?"

"It just… doesn't it look like that guy's crying?" Jade asked.

Jackie got a good look at it. "Hmm, perhaps the artist was trying to convey a hidden message."

"No, I mean, like he was actually crying." Jade clarified. "Not a painting of a guy crying, but a guy crying for real!"

Will walked up to get a closer look herself. However, once she was close enough, the Heart of Kandrakar around her neck began to glow and pull itself into the painting, along with Will. Jade and Jackie quickly tried to grab her and pull her back, only for they themselves to be pulled in as well. Taranee, Hay Lin, and Cornelia tried to grab onto Jackie's feet, but ended up getting sucked into the painting as well.

* * *

The inside of the painting appeared to be a medieval town with lots of wooden buildings, a cathedral, a valley around the town, but more importantly; live people all throughout the town. Among those people however, included Jackie, Will, Jade, Cornelia, Taranee, and Hay Lin as they all found themselves on the ground.

"What the hell just happened?!" Cornelia exclaimed. "And how's my hair look!"

"Forget your stupid hair! Where the heck are we?!" Jade almost exclaimed.

"Is everyone alright?" Jackie asked the girls as he was already on his feet and helping them up to their feet as well.

"A little dizzy, but I'm okay." Hay Lin shook the cobwebs out of her head.

"Is this Meridian or Heatherfield?" Taranee asked as the group looked around at their new surroundings.

Will however was the first to figure it out. "Neither. Guys, we're _inside_ the painting!"

* * *

Irma wore a knight-costume as she rode a horse for jousting-practice inside a large stable. Using her lance, she was able to hit the target she was using for practice with little-to-no trouble before pulling the horse to a stop and getting off.

"Hey Mr. Fordom. I'll bring Dusty back right after the tournament." She said to the owner of the horse.

"Manure." The man named Fordom said.

"What?" Irma scoffed slightly. "You're saying I can't win because I'm a girl?"

"Talking about our deal." Fordom clarified. "I lend you Dusty, you muck out the stalls."

Irma winced. "Don't you have like a… crap vacuum cleaner?"

* * *

Meanwhile, Jackie led the five teenage girls through the town that served as the living painting. People seemed to go about their business almost as if they were alive, which they probably were.

"Trapped inside a magic painting, that's a new one." Jade said.

"Great, so any idea as to how we're gonna get out?" Cornelia questioned.

Jackie got off his cell phone. "I tried to call Uncle, but I can't get a signal."

"Pretty sure you won't get any reception inside a magic painting." Taranee assumed.

"But there has to be some connection between the painting and Meridian." Will tried to think.

"Duh." Jade stated.

* * *

However, what they didn't notice was that the painting from the museum on Earth wasn't the only 'window' into the painted world our heroes were trapped in. From the other side in Meridian; Phobos, Daolon Wong, and Cedric noticed their presence as well.

"Well, well, four of the five Guardians, one of whom possess the Heart of Kandrakar." Phobos observed. "Even that irksome Jackie Chan."

"This could certainly be problematic." Cedric said.

"Not at all." Wong sneered. "I created that world, and as such, all forms of good magic will be unable to work in there, including the Heart of Kandrakar."

Phobos smirked evilly. "Well now, that _is_ perfect." He turned to his two subordinates. "Summon Frost the Hunter, and your Dark Chi Warriors. Bring me the Heart!"

* * *

As Jackie continued to lead the girls through the town of the painted world, they heard a call from behind. "Make way! Make way!"

An out-of-control bison-like creature with its wagon appeared to stampede toward them; Jackie pulled Hay Lin and Taranee out of the way as Will did for Cornelia. Jade tried to run but tripped on a rock and looked in fear as the creature was about to run her over.

"Jade!" Jackie was more than ready to leap into action, but someone else beat him to it as a man tackled Jade out of the path of the out-of-control bison.

"Eh… thanks." Jade said to her savior. "We're… not from around here."

"I know, I created here. Elias Van Dahl." The man introduced to himself and the others as he helped Jade up to her feet. "Welcome to my painting."

"Whoa… you painted a whole world?" Jade questioned before an excited smile formed on her face. "Cool!"

"Not exactly. It's actually a bit complicated." Elias replied.

"Well, seeing as how you are the artist sir, perhaps you can help us." Jackie suggested. However, before anyone could say anything else; they all glanced toward the center of town as a plum of dark blue smoke appeared to reveal four new individuals. Three of which were Finn, Ratso, and Chow as Dark Chi warriors, but the new one was a muscular troll-like creature riding what appeared to be a rhino-like steed.

"It's the Dark Chi Stooges! And… whatever that thing is!" Will stated in shock.

"Frost the Hunter!" Elias exclaimed upon recognizing the hunter.

"They haven't noticed us! Quickly, hide!" Jackie told the group.

"In here!" Elias opened a door to a building where Jackie and the girls quickly ran inside, without being noticed by the Dark Chi Enforcers and Frost.

"Whoa… we're inside a painting." Ratso looked around with wonder.

"Gotta admit, whoever painted this got talent." Finn said. "I mean, he's no Vango, but still."

"Enough of your babbling!" Frost exclaimed to the Enforcers. "The Guardians are here! Find them!"

"Take it easy hunter-boy, we're looking!" Chow stated as he and Finn went off to look, but Ratso took the moment to pat the rhino-like creature on the head.

"Aw, who's a good boy? Who's a good boy?" Ratso's affection however was met with an angry roar from the rhino who knocked Ratso down on the ground.

"Crimson doesn't like you. And neither do I." Frost said. "Now get looking!" He told Ratso as he joined his friends to look for their enemies.

* * *

Meanwhile, Irma, still dressed in her knight-costume, continued to clean out the stalls in the horse stable. "Yuck." She muttered. "That smells worse than horse…" Her curse word was censored out by a horse's neighing.

"If Blunk had nickel for every time Blunk hear that…" The Passling named Blunk said as he and Caleb walked into the stall, with Blunk still having the painting he stole from Phobos' castle around his neck.

"What are you guys doing here?" Irma asked upon noticing them.

"It looks like we've got another portal-mending job." Caleb explained. "Where's Will?"

"Great timing." Irma said sarcastically. "It's the day of the school carnival."

"Cute shoveling suit." Caleb teased, which Irma didn't take too well.

"For your information, I'm in a jousting tournament! Medieval fair? Oh, you wouldn't understand."

"For _your _information, I was junior jousting champion of Meridian." Caleb replied. "And, you're wearing your pants backwards."

Irma laughed nervously upon seeing Caleb was right. "If you think you're so great, enter the tournament. You'll be wearing your _head _backwards."

Blunk pulled what was left of the painting he stole from his neck and offered it to Irma. "Nice pixie-swatter, trade Blunk?"

* * *

Meanwhile, back inside the painted world, Elias had led the group into what appeared to be his own personal study as he explained everything to Jackie and the girls.

"It amused that accursed dark wizard to stick me into a world that I created. You're the only things I _didn't _paint. How did you come to be here?"

"Well, the Heart of Kandrakar pulled us in." Will explained.

"You're the Guardians of the Veil?" Elias asked in surprise before bowing humbly. "I'm honored, this explains why Phobos sent the hunter and those Dark Warriors."

"Well, _they're _the Guardians, I'm not." Jade said. "But this guy right here kicks evil butt on a daily basis!" She pointed to Jackie. "Even decked Phobos!"

That took Elias by surprise as he looked to Jackie in amazement. "You defeated Phobos in combat?!"

"Eh… well, once or twice, yes." Jackie sounded humble before getting back to the point. "But if you created this world, perhaps you know of a way to escape it?"

"If I truly knew of a way out, I surely would have used it by now." Elias replied. "I was hoping you would have the power to free us."

Will took out the Heart of Kandrakar somewhat hesitantly. "Let's see what we can do… Guardians Unite!" However, the crystal did not glow, and there was no transformation.

"It didn't work?!" Jade exclaimed in shock.

"Seeing how Daolon Wong was responsible for this, he must have made it so that only _his_ magic can work here." Jackie assumed.

"Oh great. We have no powers here." Taranee muttered in disappointment and even fear.

"Then you'll need disguises." Elias said.

"Uh… maybe something like this…?" Hay Lin had used Elias' supplies to paint what appeared to be a dark green dress suited for a princess, but once it was finished painting, the dress became three dimensional before falling onto the floor, much to everyone's surprise.

"This is… like way the most realistic sketch I've ever did!" Hay Lin exclaimed in joyous surprise.

"Holy crap it's real!" Will picked it up in amazement.

"Everything you paint comes to life here?" Taranee asked in the same amazed tone, which Elias nodded in confirmation.

"Then why didn't you… you know… paint a doorway out of here?" Jade asked Elias.

"I have tried. Nothing I have worked." Elias replied.

Jackie sighed. "Then it seems we'll have to hide until we find a solution."

Cornelia however appeared the most excited. "Ooh! Let's go clothes-painting!"

Using a spare room Elias had, each of them changed began to change into the disguises that Hay Lin had painted for them. Taranee wore the dark green dress that was painted first. Hay Lin wore one that looked near identical, only it was yellow instead of green. Jackie had a dark blue tunic and overcoat with black boots, as well as a sheathed sword. Jade wore a black robe that seemed like one for a medieval plague doctor, just without the mask.".

"Oooh this is so cute." Taranee looked at the dress she wore.

"I look like the grim reaper. I love it!" Jade exclaimed upon seeing her black robe.

Jackie seemed to appreciate the disguise that he wore. "Hay Lin, why did you give me a sword?" Jackie asked as he held the sword in his hand.

"Because I thought it would look cool!" Hay Lin replied excitedly. "Plus, we're being hunted by bad guys so…"

"I see your point." Jackie understood as he sheathed the sword back and Hay Lin went back to finishing up Will's dress, which was identical to Hay Lin's and Taranee's, only red.

"Not bad, hem's a little long." Will said.

"No probs, a little paint thinner." Hay Lin was able to make the necessary adjustments.

"Hello? The medieval super model is waiting!" Cornelia was the only one not to have a disguise yet. "Oh, and since it's me, I hope you'll spend a little extra time so my outfit's worthy."

"Worthy huh?" Jade smirked almost evilly as she ran up to Hay Lin and whispered into her ear, causing Hay Lin to snicker back as she got the idea.

* * *

_Earth - Sheffield Parking Lot _

The fair was in mid-construction, with Martin dressed up like a medieval minstrel with a lute and practicing it with a song, which was rather terrible.

"Martin, where's Will?" Irma asked him urgently, as they still had that 'portal-mending' job to do.

"_Alas the maid you seek my dear, has near this morn appeared." _Martin sung, only for the irritated Irma to cover his mouth.

"One more note, you eat the lute." She warned.

"Irma!" She turned around in surprise to see Tohru approaching her. "I can't seem to find Jackie or Jade, I have tried to call them, but I've had no response."

Now Irma was starting to look worried. "Yeah, Will and the others aren't calling back either. I got a bad feeling about this."

"Where did you see them last?" Tohru asked.

"The museum! Come on!" She led the large sumo away from the carnival in mid-construction, right past Elyon and Alchemy as they brought in their respective assigned decorations.

* * *

Meanwhile, back in the painted world; Elias led the disguised group of heroes throughout the town. And while each of them wore their respective outfits, Cornelia's disguise happened to be that of a court jester with green and blue patterns, complete with a hat as Will, Jade, Hay Lin, and Taranee all laughed at her expense.

"See? Told ya you'd make a good jester. You're making everyone laugh!" Jade laughed with everyone else, save for Jackie, and Cornelia herself as she scowled.

"Oh, ha ha!" The blonde muttered sarcastically. "Very funny, just see if I let you date any of my rejects."

"Quiet down, all of you." Jackie told the girls. "We cannot afford to draw too much attention."

"Too late for that!" Will exclaimed in surprise as she turned around to see Frost on his rhino-steed, Crimson, coming from around the corner. With Finn, Ratso, and Chow appearing in dark blue smoke in front of them.

"We're surrounded!" Elias exclaimed as Jackie quickly drew his sword, ready to take them all on.

"Got that right." Finn said. "Now give us that Heart thing and no one gets hurt."

"You would be wise to heed that warning." Frost added. "In this world, you have no power!"

Will looked around and spotted a nearby pitchfork. "We might not have any magic." She quickly picked up the make-shift weapon and spun it around. "But we still got our training!"

Jackie looked back and saw the girls were more than ready for a fight. Though he was confident they could handle the Enforcers even without their Guardian powers, Frost could still present a serious problem. He then spotted a bison-like creature carrying a wagon full of fruits and vegetables. He quickly ran and mounted the creature.

"Sorry! I will return this later, thank you!" Jackie turned the bison and rode it directly at Frost, slashing his sword at him, which Frost avoided as Jackie pulled the bison to a stop. "Frost! You claim to be a hunter?! Then hunt me!" He rode the bison away from the girls as Frost growled at the challenger.

"Go Crimson! Charge!" Frost ordered his rhino-steed to chase after the fleeing Jackie; leaving Will, Jade, Hay Lin, Taranee, Cornelia, and even Elias to deal with the Dark Chin Enforcers. Will still held her pitchfork as Taranee picked up a pair of hammers from a nearby black-smith shop, Hay Lin 'borrowed' a lute that was dropped by a fleeing minstrel, and Cornelia picked up a wooden rake.

"Okay you guys hit em high! I hit em low!" Jade stated.

"Elias, take Jade and hide!" Will told the artist as she clashed her pitchfork against Finn's bladed weapon while Cornelia, Hay Lin, and Taranee engaged Ratso and Chow.

Elias had done as instructed and pulled Jade away in between a pair of stalls. "What? Come on! I can help!"

"You yourself said you weren't a Guardian. It's too dangerous." Elias told Jade, who could only scowl and pout.

Jackie rode his borrowed bison steed through the streets, turning around the corner, with Frost and Crimson right on his tail. Frost brandished his whip and snapped it towards Jackie, though it hit his back, Jackie winced but kept going until he spotted what appeared to be a dead-end. Jackie pulled on the horns of his bison-steed to turn it around and charge straight at Frost and Crimson. Frost attempted to snap his whip again, but Jackie drew his sword to not only cut the whip, but even cut at the saddle on Crimson's side to send Frost sliding and falling off before skidding on the ground.

However, Frost was far from done as he got back up on his feet and actually ran towards Jackie, before he could even move his bison, Frost jumped up and tackled Jackie to the ground. But Jackie pulled back both his feet and kicked Frost off of him, but before Jackie could even think about fighting back, Crimson charged at Jackie, prompting him to run away from the charging rhino.

Meanwhile; Will thrusted her pitchfork at Finn who blocked it with his bladed weapon before stepping back to slice it down at Will. She tried to block it, only for het pitchfork to be cut in half, but Will was able to swipe her feet and knock Finn down onto the ground.

"Guess all that Kung Fu training is paying off." Will said, mostly to herself, but Finn was quick to get back up as he threw his bladed weapon at her, forcing Will to duck and find cover as it shot and bounced through the air like a shuriken. The redhead was able to find cover behind a well, fortunately.

At the same time, Hay Lin and Taranee both ran backwards to avoid Ratso as he leapt into the air with his hammer, slamming it down onto the ground and sending a shockwave to knock both of them back.

"Hey, no fair!" Hay Lin complained. "How come he can use magic, but we can't?!"

"Daolon Wong made this place, and since these guys are powered by his own dark magic, that's probably how." Taranee assumed.

"Sorry kids, nothing personal." Ratso apologized as he swung his hammer at them, while Taranee and Hay Lin could only throw their own make-shift weapons at him, which he batted away with his hammer before charging at them again.

Cornelia held her rake in a defensive position against Chow. "Back off, pall! You don't want any of this!"

However, rather than being intimidated, Chow actually laughed at Cornelia. "Ah, what ya gonna do? Rake me to death little miss jester?!" He laughed at her court jester outfit. "You gonna give me a circus dance? Ha ha ha!" Cornelia then proceeded to stomp Chow on his foot before swinging her rake upwards right into his jaw to send him flying and crashing onto the ground.

"Oh, what's that? I can't hear you over this rake breaking your jaw." Cornelia smirked.

Chow growled as he got up and threw his staff, which spun around like a blade, actually cutting through Cornelia's rake and sending her flying back toward the other girls who were still on the defensive from the remaining Dark Chi Enforcers.

Jade and Elias saw how their friends appeared to be losing. "This is not good." Elias gulped.

However, Jade happened to spot the sacks of pain that Elias carried with him when she got an idea. "Hey, I'm just gonna borrow this real quick." She snatched some paint away and began to paint something she hoped would turn the fight in their favor.

Jackie, meanwhile, continued to run from Frost as he remounted Crimson and ended up cornered along with Will, Cornelia, Taranee, and Hay Lin, surrounded by the hunter and the three Dark Chi Enforcers.

"This is the end for you." Frost glared at the heroes. "Any final words?"

"I got some!" Jade stated as she happened to brandish a large rocket launcher on her shoulder. "Say 'hello' to my little friend!" She shot a rocket at the villains, which exploded at the ground underneath them. Though the Dark Chi Enforcers were obliterated, Frost and Crimson were sent flying into a nearby building.

"Jade!" Jackie exclaimed as all the girls' jaws dropped.

"What?" Jade shrugged.

"Did… did you seriously just paint a bazooka?!" Will exclaimed.

"Hey, it worked, didn't it?" Jade shrugged.

"Jade, I feel like we need to have a serious talk once we get out of here." Taranee stated.

"Yes, we do." Jackie seemed to agree as Jade merely chuckled nervously.

* * *

_Meridian_

"The Guardians have eluded Frost and those bumbling idiots!" Phobos stated in frustration.

"Not for long, my liege." Cedric said. "What this painting needs… is more darkness." He hissed as the large shapeshifter transformed into his massive humanoid snake form. And it wasn't just him; multiple Lurdens all appeared from behind him, with even more Shadowkhan as well.

Daolon Wong casted a dark chi spell onto the painting, allowing him, Cedric, and their small army to enter the pocket dimension.

* * *

_Earth_

Meanwhile, at the museum, Irma and Tohru continued to search for their friends; not just because of the portal or the carnival, but because now they were really getting worried. "Will!? Jackie?! Jade?! Anyone?!" Irma called as she ran throughout the museum.

Tohru spotted a small boy looking curiously at a certain painting and walked toward him. "Can you turn up the TV?" The boy asked Tohru, who could only gasp as he saw the moving painting. He saw Will, Jade, Jackie, Hay Lin, Cornelia, Taranee, and Elias all running for their lives from the small army consisting of Cedric, Daolon Wong, the Dark Chi Enforcers, Frost and Crimson, Lurdens and Shadowkhan.

Irma saw what Tohru was looking at and gasped in fright as well. "Oh no!"

Tohru immediately picked up his cell phone and made a call. "Captain Black! We have a situation!"

* * *

Inside the painted world; the heroes all managed to make some considerable distance from the enemy army via some scooters that Hay Lin painted for all of them, save for Jackie who had his own motorcycle with Jade riding on it with her uncle, they had already made it to a river bank where their vehicles couldn't carry them anymore.

"Painting scooters and motorcycles as a good idea, Cornelia." Jackie told the blonde.

"How did Elias luck out?" Jade asked Hay Lin as they saw Elias catching up with them via a simple bicycle.

"It's the man's first bike. I wanted him to cruise in style." Hay Lin answered.

"Where'd you paint the breaks?!" Elias practically screamed as he crashed into the river. Jackie was quick to help him up to his feet, however.

"Uh… how are you at painting boats?" Cornelia asked Hay Lin as that was probably their only means of transportation right now.

"I don't think we got time for a whole boat!" Taranee exclaimed as she pointed up the hill to see Wong, Cedric, and their forces already catching up to them.

"Jade, what are you waiting for?! Use your bazooka!" Cornelia exclaimed.

"Heh, heh, didn't paint any extra ammo." Jade winced, much to the girls' dismay.

"Are you kidding?!" Cornelia practically screamed.

"Girls, you help Hay Lin and Elias paint our escape. I will run interference." Jackie said as he drew his sword and was ready to charge at the enemy army.

"Hang on, I can help you!" Will was ready to help.

"Help them!" Jackie pointed to their friends as he already ran up the hill to meet the enemy. With no time to question, the girls all joined Hay Lin and Elias as they helped to paint a raft.

The first enemies to meet Jackie were a group of Shadowkhan, which he slashed and hacked at with his sword. Any Shadowkhan that met his blade was instantly disintegrated, but the sheer number of them kept Jackie on the defensive as one of them knocked the blade out of Jackie's hands, forcing him to defend himself with hand-to-hand combat, which only became more difficult as the Dark Chin Enforcers and Lurdens were already on him as well.

"Jackie's in trouble!" Jade exclaimed.

"Painting as fast as we can!" Hay Lin exclaimed as they were almost done with the raft. Seeing how Hay Lin could make the final touches on her own; Jade, Will, Taranee, and Cornelia all looked to each other and nodded before running in to help Jackie.

Jackie had his hands pinned behind his back by a pair of Shadowkhan as he was surrounded by many more and several Lurdens. One Lurden lifted its axe to finish him off. However, before he could take the final swing, he was stopped with a flying kick from Jade who knocked it down. Will and Taranee came in to knock the Shadowkhan off Jackie as Cornelia grabbed the axe dropped by the Lurden Jade kicked down to cut down two approaching Shadowkhan.

"Guys! Raft is ready! Let's go!" Hay Lin called to them as the group turned around to run and board the raft as Hay Lin also painted a motor at the end, which Jackie started, allowing the group to escape down the river just as the villains made it to the bank.

* * *

_Earth _

Multiple police and Section 13 vehicles had the museum cornered off as all the patrons and employees were evacuated from the building, leaving only Section 13 agents, personally led by Captain Black, as well as Irma and Tohru, even Uncle, Caleb, and Blunk whom Section 13 agents picked up once they got the call that magic would be involved.

"So, they're _inside_ the painting?" Captain Black asked in surprise.

"Yeah! Along with Cedric, Wong, and their goon-squad!" Irma stated.

"Uh oh. So many bad guys." Blunk observed.

"I've seen this painting." Caleb said. "We can go in through the other side."

"Other side?" Tohru asked. "Where?"

"In Meridian, we just need to… OW!" Caleb felt his forehead where Uncle delivered his dope slap.

"We do not have time to sneak into evil castle and find painting!" Uncle protested. "We must work now!"

"But how come they haven't transformed yet?" Irma questioned. "Will should have Guardianed everyone up by now!"

Uncle began to think for a moment as he pulled out a dried lizard and blasted a burst of green chi magic, which appeared to dissipate once it made contact with the painting that was surrounded by a dark blue aura.

"Dark magic." Uncle realized. "This is the work of Daolon Wong. All good magic that enters the painting will be unable to work."

"Not even the Heart of Kandrakar?!" Caleb exclaimed.

"Well how are we supposed to get them out!?" Irma questioned in a panic.

"We need the Tiger Talisman." Uncle deduced.

"Right here, mi compadre." Captain Black presented a steel briefcase, which he opened to reveal all twelve Talismans.

"You carry the Talismans with you?" Irma asked.

"Only when I hear you guys call." Captain Black answered. "If it involves magic, these could probably serve as back-up."

"Sensei, what did you mean when you said how the Tiger Talisman can help?" Tohru asked.

"The power of the Tiger represents balance: Yin and Yang." Uncle explained. "But it also has the power to separate light and dark into two separate entities. If the Tiger Talisman makes contact with this world of magic, it will separate all that is good from all that is evil, freeing Jackie, Jade, and the Guardians from this imprisonment."

"Well why didn't you just say so?" Irma questioned as she immediately grabbed the Tiger Talisman and placed it on the painting. "Talisman power, go!" However, nothing happened. "It didn't work! OW!"

"Of course, it did not work!" Uncle stated after delivering his dope-slap to the girl. "The painting is merely a _window_! Talisman must make contact with the painted world itself!"

"But you said all other forms of magic won't work in there!" Caleb stated.

"That is why magic must defeat magic." Uncle stated. "Tohru, you will prepare a spell that will allow the Talismans' powers to work in painted world!"

That took the sumo by surprise. "Buh… uh… _me_?! Why can't you cast the spell, sensei?"

"I must prepare separate spell that will allow us to enter painted world!" Uncle stated. "We must hurry or else our friends will be lost to the Forces of Darkness! Caleb, Irma, help Tohru!"

"You heard the old man, let's get to work." Caleb told Tohru as he gulped, but Irma put a hand on his arm.

"Don't worry Big T, we got your back." Irma assured, which seemed to help ease some of Tohru's stress a bit.

"Is there any way I can help?" Captain Black offered.

"Yes. Keep Passling from licking museum property!" Uncle pointed to Blunk who was licking a painting on the other side of the hall.

"Hmm, red taste like cherry." Blunk attempted to lick again, only to be pulled back by Captain Black as the others got to work.

* * *

Meanwhile, back in the painted world, the group of heroes continued to ride the raft with the motor in the river as the massive swarm of enemies continued to chase after them along the side, though the heroes had made some considerable distance, it was not the time to let their guard down.

Daolon Wong rode on the shoulders of Ratso, much to the Dark Chi Enforcer's exhaustion, though Wong himself was growing frustrated with this continued chase, so with a wave of his scepter, Wong had summoned a large, dark scaled, winged-serpent monster, which flew toward the raft.

"Guys! Incoming monster!" Jade warned the group. However, Jackie got an idea as he saw some paint-thinner in one of Elias' sacks. He grabbed the sack and threw it with near perfect accuracy at the monster, which erased the head and most of the right wing of the monster, killing it as the remains fell into the river.

"Nice aim." Hay Lin said with a relieved smile.

"Thank you." Jackie nodded.

"I just hope you painted the gas tank full." Taranee said to Hay Lin.

"Uh… I think we're gonna run out of _river_ first!" Will stated as they all turned to see the end of the painting itself and just a white void in front of them, forcing the boat to stop.

"Quick paint! Paint like the wind! Paint like your life depends on it!" Jade exclaimed in a worried tone of voice. "Which it totally does!"

"We're painting! We're painting!" Hay Lin exclaimed as she and Elias tried to paint a continuation of the river.

"Well paint faster! Cause the Forces of Darkness are right on our heels!" Cornelia exclaimed as they saw their enemy getting ever closer.

Fortunately, Hay Lin and Elias had finished painting a newer landscape. "Go! Go! Go!" Jackie exclaimed as Will activated the motor, allowing the raft to sail into the landscape, while avoiding the arrows and shurikens thrown and shot at them by Lurdens and Shadowkhan respectively.

Finn, Ratso, and Chow had to stop a moment to catch their breath. "Gotta admit… kid's got skills…" Finn said in-between breaths.

"Yeah… she'd be a pretty good artist someday…" Ratso complemented, also in-between breaths.

"Do not stop fools! Keep moving!" Wong exclaimed.

"Okay, okay, give us a minute!" Chow replied.

"If we do not get that crystal, Phobos will have each of your hides!" Cedric hissed at the Dark Chi Enforcers, giving them the necessary motivation to keep going forward.

* * *

Back in the museum, on Earth, Uncle was making the final preparations to the chi-spell that would enable them to enter the painted world as he put the necessary ingredients into his cauldron, which bubbled with green liquid.

"Uncle is almost ready. How is Tohru's spell?" He asked.

"We're working on it!" Caleb stated as he and Irma helped Tohru, who was reading his own spell book with his own cauldron filled with green liquid right in front of him.

"Uh… one pair of dried bat wings…?" Tohru read the recipe aloud.

"Check." Irma said as she put in said pair of bat wings into the cauldron. "And I do not even wanna know how you guys got this stuff."

"Uh, one seeder leaf." Tohru listed the next ingredient.

"Check." Caleb put the leaf into the cauldron as well.

"Three spines of urchins." Tohru continued.

"_Three _spines?!" Uncle questioned. "Do you want Talismans to explode?!"

"But the spell book says…"

"Book is only a _guide_!" Uncle stated to his apprentice. "Good Chi-Wizard makes spell his own!"

This only seemed to make Tohru even more nervous. "Well, whatever you do you better hurry. Looks like they're heading for a dead end." Captain Black said as the group saw the predicament their friends were in inside the painting.

* * *

The raft reached the end of the river, much to the worry of the heroes. "We need blue paint!" Cornelia exclaimed.

"Uh… can you sail in tar? Cause this is all I got left." Hay Lin said as they only had black paint left.

"No time! We need to keep moving!" Jackie stated as they turned around to see Daolon Wong, Cedric, Frost and Crimson, Finn, Ratso, and Chow, along with the Lurdens and Shadowkhan already catching up with them. The group ran up the nearest hill, with the army of villains right behind them, even Cedric destroyed the raft with his massive tail to ensure they had no means of escaping.

"What can we make out of black?" Cornelia questioned as it was their only color left.

"Another bazooka?" Will offered.

"We may not have enough time!" Jackie stated.

Jade suddenly got an idea. "Hay Lin! How about we go bowling for bad guys!"

"Right behind ya, Jade!" She tossed her friend an extra paint brush as the two quickly worked to paint massive bowling balls which Will, Taranee, Cornelia, and Elias quickly began to push down. This forced the villains back relatively easily, particularly the Lurdens and Dark Chin Enforcers. However, the Shadowkhan were able to leap over the bowling balls, but before they could get the drop on the heroes, Jackie leapt to meet them in the air and deliver multiple punches and kicks to knock them down.

However, it wasn't long before they ran out of black paint to. "That's it! We're out of ammo!" Jade stated as the group backed up, the enemy army closing in on them. They had no choice but to run, however, they didn't run very far before they came before the end of the painting once more, in the form of a cliff with a bottomless white abyss below. There was no place to escape to, and no more paint to make an escape with.

"Dead end." Cornelia said in a worried sigh.

"Emphasis on 'dead'." Taranee gulped as all the villains had managed to catch up to them.

"Sorry guys, looks like it's the end of the line." Finn said.

"Look, you know how much we care about you guys, but Phobos _really _wants that crystal thing." Chow said, almost in a sorrowful tone.

"So just hand it over and we'll let you all go." Ratso offered.

Jackie stepped protectively in front of the girls and Elias. "Do we have your word that you will at least allow the girls and Elias to escape?"

"Of course." Cedric hissed with a deceptive smile. "So, the crystal please?" He offered his hand to them.

"Yeah, like we're gonna trust snake-boy and the anti-uncle to just let us go." Jade muttered in clear sarcasm.

Will looked towards Elias and saw how he still had a vial of paint thinner. "Jackie, I got an idea." She whispered to him as she took the paint thinner from Elias and walked forward with the Heart of Kandrakar in her other hand.

"New deal!" She announced to the bad guys. "You guys get us a way out of here first, or I'll erase the Heart of Kandrakar from existence! Like this!" She poured a small drop of paint thinner onto the ground, erasing part of it. This seemed to keep the bad guys at bay as Cedric held back his hand to keep his minions from pressing forward.

* * *

Tohru was sweating up a storm as the spell was all but read; Irma, Caleb, and Captain Black each held four of the Twelve Talismans and were ready to place them into the cauldron.

"One more thing!" Uncle instructed. "Be sure cauldron bubbles at proper rate! One more thing; do not forget to channel good chi! One more thing; do not rush chanting!"

"Oh, cast the stupid spell already before he comes up with 'three more things!'" Irma put on a brief Uncle impression while trying to hurry Tohru along.

Tohru took a deep sigh. "Place the Talismans into the cauldron." He instructed. Irma, Caleb, and Captain Black each dropped the Talismans into the green liquid which began to bubble just as Tohru began to chant with his hands clapped together.

"_Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao." _As Tohru continued to chant, the liquid began to glow green as Uncle, Irma, Caleb, Captain Black, and even Blunk all watched in anticipation, which grew even more as the twelve Talismans began to lift out of the bubbling liquid, each one having a green aura glowing around them. "_Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao." _After the final chants, the spell was complete as the Talismans all fell from the air after they stopped glowing. Tohru caught them in his massive hands.

"I believe the spell worked, Sensei." Tohru said, smiling at his accomplishment.

"Good. Now it is time to enter painting!" Now it was Uncle's turn to chant as he hopped on one foot with a dried lizard in his hand. _"Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao"_

The lizard glowed green with chi-magic, which Uncle shot at the painting, resulting in it glowing green as well. Captain Black and Blunk ended up taking a step back as Uncle, Tohru, Caleb and Irma were engulfed in a sudden bright flash of green light.

* * *

Daolon Wong was often a patient wizard, but now is patience appeared to have reach its limit. "Ugh! Enough of these games!" He threw out his scepter, zapping each of the heroes and ensnaring them in a dark aura that kept them all immobilized, all except for Will as she appeared to be telekinetically pulled toward him, and forcibly handing him the Heart of Kandrakar.

"Foolish child. I am the most malevolent of Dark Chi masters! What makes you think your childish bluff could possibly stop me?!" Wong reached for the crystal, but before he could grab it…

"HOT-CHA!"

Everyone looked up in surprise to see Uncle, Irma, Tohru, and Caleb all falling to the ground from the sky. Most of them had a rough landing in between the heroes and the small army of villains, save for Uncle who landed directly in front of Wong.

"Hello!" Uncle greeted, as Wong looked in complete and utter surprise. "And goodbye!" He brandished a blowfish and shot a point-blank blast of good Chi Magic to send the dark wizard flying and crashing through his own soldiers, while also freeing the heroes from his magical grasp.

"Uncle! Tohru!" Jackie, Jade, and Taranee all exclaimed.

"Irma!" Will and Hay Lin shouted in surprise.

"Caleb!" Cornelia also exclaimed.

"Who wants a piece of Uncle?!" He challenged the army as he wielded two blowfish, standing alongside Caleb and Tohru as they ran to engage the enemy army.

"Hey guys." Irma waved casually to her friends.

"Irma?! How did you…?!" Jackie questioned.

"No time to explain! Time to Talisman up! Don't worry, they work here!" Irma began to hand over one individual Talisman to each of her friends. "Super strong Ox for Will, speedy Rabbit for Jackie, fiery Dragon for Taranee, flying Rooster for Hay Lin, heat-vision Piggy for Cornelia, shapeshifting Monkey for our mischievous Jade, and invisible Snake for mama." She kept the Snake Talisman for herself while the others now wielded their respective Talismans before smirking and charging at the enemy army.

Cedric tried to gain control of his army, only to find a certain sumo blocking his way. "You!" He hissed at Tohru who glared back as he cracked his knuckles before waving his hand to bring it on. Cedric roared as he charged directly at Tohru, the two locked hands and grappled with each other, pressing their own strength against the other, and so far, it appeared to be even.

Multiple Lurdens and Shadowkhan looked ready to try and assist Cedric, but they didn't have the chance to as Jackie ran at them at high speeds thanks to the Rabbit Talisman and dealt punches and kicks so fast that they didn't even see them coming. The momentum gathered from the intense speed sent each individual enemy flying with a single punch.

Taranee was the first to attack a group of Shadowkhan and Lurdens, along with Ratso. "Hey, you guys think you can take the heat!" She brandished the Dragon Talisman and blasted condensed shots of fire to obliterate the Shadowkhan, send the Lurdens flying in the explosions, and even land a good hit on Ratso causing him to vanish.

Cornelia ran to Taranee's side to back her up with heat-beams from her eyes, curtsey of the Pig Talisman. "I'm not much of a fan of pigs, but I think I can make the exception with this one." She smirked as she looked to her Talisman before resuming her onslaught of eyebeams alongside Taranee's fire blasts.

Daolon Wong recovered and saw the powers his enemies were using. "The Talismans?! But how?! I created this world! No good magic should be able to work here!"

"Ahem!" Uncle got his attention. "You would be wise not to underestimate a student of Chi-Master Fong!" He smiled cockily before blasting a massive beam of good chi magic from both blowfish, which Wong retaliated with a blast of dark chi magic from his scepter as both beams clashed once more.

Chow and several Lurdens tried to charge Hay Lin, but she quickly took to the skies, thanks to the power of the Rooster Talisman. She flew up pretty high before letting herself fall straight down, her foot sticking out. Chow couldn't react in time as the foot made contact with his face, causing him to vanish in a puff of blue smoke before Hay Lin flew outward again to deal a three-sixty spinning roundhouse kick to knock back many more Lurdens.

"Freeze kid!" Finn exclaimed as he several Shadowkhan surrounded a seemingly defenseless Irma.

"Sure, want me to raise my hands?" She asked with a smirk, raising her hands, while also showing off the Snake Talisman and using it to turn invisible.

"What the… where'd she go?!" Finn and the Shadowkhan looked around, only for an invisible Irma to stomp on his foot, punch him in the gut, and deliver an upper cut to the jaw. She also managed to pick up the bladed-weapon Finn dropped and used it, while still invisible, to easily cut down all the Shadowkhan as they couldn't lay a single hit on her before using the weapon to finish off Finn who vanished in a puff of dark blue smoke as well.

Jade and Caleb appeared to be almost completely surrounded by the remaining Lurdens and Shadowkhan. "Hey Caleb, I got a question for you? How do you stop an elephant from charging?"

"Uh… I don't know. Why?" He asked, only to look gasp in surprise as Jade used the Monkey Talisman to transform into an elephant, with him riding on top.

"Answer: you don't. Just get the heck out of the way!" Elephant-Jade exclaimed with an elephant's roar as she charged all the Lurdens and Shadowkhan at high speeds; either trampling them or sending them flying with a swing of her trunk.

Frost continued to ride Crimson, charging straight for Will who didn't even bother to move an inch as she placed her hands on her hips. "Easy prey!" Frost sneered as Crimson charged, aiming to stampede over the redhead. But Will pulled back a fist before delivering a punch to Crimson's head right before it hit, smashing the rhino-like steed into the ground and sending Frost flying over her head from the momentum and landing hard on the ground.

Though Crimson appeared down for the count, Frost himself wasn't. "I'll crush you!" He ran and threw a fist at Will, but she easily blocked it with a single finger.

"Yeah, good luck with that." Will smirked, keeping the Ox Talisman in her pocket before Frost tried to punch her again and again, but she blocked each of his attacks with minimal effort before ducking under another hit and picking up the surprised Frost with one hand. "Thank you for choosing Will-Airlines! Enjoy your flight!" She threw Frost with enough force that he was sent flying hundreds of feet away, while screaming in the distance.

Daolon Wong tried to press hard against Uncle's chi magic, but the good Chi Wizard appeared to get the edge as he channeled enough of his own chi magic to overpower Wong's dark magic and send him flying with a final blast.

At the same time, Tohru tackled Cedric and the two rolled down the hill, all the way toward the river where they crashed. Tohru ended up on top of the massive humanoid snake and began to deal multiple devastating punches to Cedric's face. After the seventh punch however, Cedric's tail shot at Tohru from behind, coiling around his neck to try and strangle him, but Tohru grunted through the pain and lifted both his fists to slam down onto Cedric's face, forcing him to let go.

* * *

Phobos snarled as he saw how easily his own forces were being overpowered. He materialized a sword in his hands and slashed at the painting itself.

* * *

It seemed the entire landscape was being torn apart as a massive blade began to cut through the entire painted world, with everyone inside, good and evil screaming and falling as though a massive earthquake shot through the entire land.

"Tohru! Use the Tiger Talisman! Now!" Uncle exclaimed.

The sumo and apprentice chi-wizard lifted his hand to brandish the Tiger Talisman before yelling as he slammed it onto the ground. The second it made contact with the painted world, the entire realm began to glow as surges of white and black energy shot out from everywhere.

Will, Jackie, Irma, Jade, Cornelia, Uncle, Taranee, Tohru, Hay Lin, Caleb, and Elias all began to glow with a white aura surrounding them as they were lifted in the air; with Daolon Wong, Cedric, Frost, Crimson, and the remaining Lurdens all had a black aura surrounding them as well. Suddenly, an invisible force shot the heroes in one direction and the villains in the opposite.

* * *

Captain Black and Blunk looked in shock as they saw the painting on their end glow white, where all the heroes were shot out of it, almost as if a force of nature itself pulled them all into Earth, and it wasn't just them, it was all of the people who lived inside the painting as well.

* * *

Phobos took a step back as the painting began to surge with a black aura, where he watched in surprise as all his minions were expelled from the painted world before landing at his feet, where the dark prince could only scowl and clench his fists in anger.

* * *

Back on Earth, the Chan Clan and Guardian-girls, along with Captain Black all helped the people that were once part of Elias painting, but now in the real world, back on their feet.

"Go Uncle!" Jade exclaimed. "First you got us out of that crazy world, and you got the Talismans to work!"

"I had nothing to do with that, it was all Tohru." Uncle said as everyone directed their attention to the big guy.

"It's true, Tohru was the one who casted the spell to let the Talismans work in that realm." Caleb confirmed.

"We did help a little, but it was mostly him. Right Big T?" Irma gave a smirk and a playful nudge to his arm.

"Yes, well I…" Tohru was suddenly caught by surprise as Will, Taranee, Hay Lin, Jade, and even Cornelia all gave him one big hug.

"Thanks, so much Tohru! You really saved our butts back there!" Will said gratefully.

"You're the best Uncle T!" Hay Lin exclaimed with a wide smile.

"Yes, you did well Tohru. Thank you." Jackie smiled with a nod.

Uncle couldn't help but smile with pride as he looked to his student. "My apprentice will make a good Chi Wizard someday."

Tohru blushed at all their praise. "Yes… someday."

* * *

_Sheffield Institute _

The carnival was supposed to have started already, but that was not the case, evident by all the students at Sheffield who looked absolutely bored out of their minds, with Principle Knickerbocker less than pleased.

"Where is Will Vandom?!" The Principle questioned. "This Fall Carnival is a disaster!"

"Ugh, tell me about it." Martin was in full agreement. "Uriah gave me a lute-wedgie." He turned around to show the lute stuffed into the back of his pants.

However, they and everyone else looked in surprise to see Will, Jade, Irma, Cornelia, Hay Lin, and Taranee, along with Jackie, Tohru, Uncle, and even Caleb leading Elias and all the people from his painting, most of them played multiple instruments including flutes, drums, and lutes. This seemed enough to get the Fall Carnival started as all the kids began to dance with the music, and even cooks began to offer some of their food as well. There were even some jesters dancing and juggling as well.

The girls, along with Jackie, Caleb, Tohru, and Uncle stood off to the side, all of whom looked quite pleased with this result.

"We closed both portals, now we just to whip up one instant medieval fair." Will smiled.

"Well I'd say mission accomplished." Jade smiled as well.

Knickerbocker walked up to her students with a relieved smile. "I was beginning to think you let your school down."

Elias walked up to Knickerbocker. "Shall we join the gaiety milady?" He offered the principle.

Knickerbocker laughed with a small blush. "Oh, well I'm really more the chaperonage!" Despite that, Elias pulled her into the festival for the dance, resulting in the girls laughing.

"So, what are we gonna do with all these people anyway?" Taranee asked.

"We can't exactly bring them back to Meridian with Phobos still in power." Caleb said.

"I've already spoken with Captain Black." Jackie revealed. "He said he can arrange for them to live in an isolated place until Phobos is defeated. Although Elias had a very special request."

"What was it?" Will asked.

* * *

A few days later, Elias was in the very same museum, at the very same spot where the window to his painted world once stood. Only now it was a real painting without any magic involved. Section 13 had supplied him a new identity as he choose to live in Heatherfield until Meridian was freed from the Forces of Darkness, where he would work at the museum. Right now, he was currently giving a tour to some guests.

"And here, we have a recently restored masterpiece by that brilliant, but underappreciated, artist… Elias Van Dahl."

"What's with the bike and the bowling balls?" One kid asked upon seeing some of those in the painting.

Elias chuckled somewhat nervously as he kneeled down to pat the boy on the head. "Um… moving on."

As he led the group away from the painting, nobody appeared to notice something that would have stuck out in the painting. Something well hidden, amongst the crowd of people. It was a young girl, around the age of thirteen, and for some reason… she bore a striking resemblance to the girl named Elyon Brown.

**Done.**

**Well that was one fun chapter; I hope you all enjoyed reading it just as much as I've enjoyed writing it. The heroes had some fun with Talismans as they beat down the bad guys, after getting trapped in a magical painting where the Heart of Kandrakar couldn't work. We even see Tohru getting better with Chi-Magic, and with the progress he's making, he's bound to become a good Chi Wizard someday.**

**Some of you may have noticed a certain change from the WITCH cannon. I already explained how I was giving Phobos some layers to his character as he was just a straight-up bad guy in the cannon with little character development; while in this you can see Daolon Wong being the most responsible for all the bad stuff in Meridian. That doesn't mean that Phobos is an angel, far from it. Daolon Wong is in Meridian because Phobos sees his Dark Chi Magic as useful during his reign, while Phobos grants Wong freedom to 'experiment' and practice with his magic that wouldn't normally be granted on Earth, and seeing how Daolon Wong is pretty evil himself, he's actually encouraging some of Phobos' worst traits, but Phobos is no fool and is keeping a close eye on Wong whom we know is plotting against him. I hope that all makes sense for you.**

**Also, why is there an image of Elyon in Elias' painting? Maybe there's some hidden message behind it? (hint, hint). What's next for our heroes? Find out next time on J-WITCH **


	14. The Star of Threbe

**Hi everyone. Thanks again for your patience. With this chapter, we finally learn the identity of the true heir to Meridian's throne. I hope everyone is doing alright with all the stress we've been experiencing due to this pandemic. It's my hope that my updates are able to lift everyone's spirits. So, with that being said, let's get started.**

**The Star of Threbe **

The Volcano of Threbe, or at least what's left of it, had been completely gutted, to put it mildly, after the volcano itself had been rendered extinct many years ago. Now the only activity occurring there was a Lurden mining operation. Their Prince had ordered them to locate something of incredible value hidden in this extinct volcano. Something that could help him locate his sister. One would say however that this was a fool's errand because the only proof of this item's existence was mere stories, probably to keep it from falling into the wrong hands. But even if this item didn't truly exist, the mineral known as Threbite could still serve him so either way, Phobos would benefit from this operation.

The Lurdens continued to dig and chip away at the inside of the volcano, pulling out large rocks to be broken where the mineral Threbite was extracted and separated from the stone. However, one Lurden struck a wall with his pickaxe, but as he did, a bright green glow shined, getting the attention of every Lurden in the mine. The source of the glow was a seven-pointed stone star that glowed green. This was it! This is what Phobos had ordered them to find! And they had succeeded!

* * *

_Earth – Uncle's Rare Finds _

Uncle read the contents of the spell book carefully as he relayed the instructions to his nephew, great-niece, apprentice, and even a certain rebel assisting them.

"Three newt eyeballs." Uncle instructed.

"Check." Tohru poured a vile of three newt eyeballs into a cauldron of bubbling green liquid.

"Dried hair of Chinese fox." Uncle continued to read.

"Check." Jackie pulled out some of the aforementioned hair before dropping it into the cauldron.

"Three quarts of eel saliva." Uncle said.

Jade held a vile of the contents. "Where do you even get eel saliva?"

"Have the old man pull his tongue out of his mouth and ring out the spit." Caleb joked. "OW!" He rubbed his forehead where Uncle delivered his titular dope slap.

"Does Rebel want to protect missing heir from Forces of Darkness? Yes? Then do what Uncle tells you!" Uncle exclaimed.

Jade poured the final ingredient into the cauldron, where there was a bright flash of light before a small plum of green smoke lifted from the stabilized liquid.

"The spell is complete." Uncle said. "Once the heir drinks it, she will be protected by any and all forces who wish to do her harm."

"Yes, but this spell won't do us much good if we can't find the heir." Tohru said.

"After our attempt at a locator spell with Phobos' hair failed, I had it sent to Section 13 to see if Captain Black could find any matches." Jackie revealed. "However, we still need access to the heir's DNA for confirmation."

"What's DNA?" Caleb asked.

"It's like a piece of someone." Jade explained. "Like a hair, fingernail, or a drop of blood. And since our missing person is Phobos' sister, they should have similar DNA."

"Yes, but we are still no closer to finding her." Jackie said. However, a foul stench filled the air, causing everyone to pinch their noses in disgust.

"Ugh! Uncle! If you're gonna make a spell that smells like crap you could at least warn us!" Jade complained.

"Uncle's spell not source of smell!" The old man replied.

"It's smells worse than rotten fish." Tohru waved a hand in front of his face.

Caleb scowled in annoyance. "I know that smell. It's dirty, it's vile…" They followed the stench outside the backdoor toward a back alley behind the shop. The source of the stench was coming from a dumpster right behind the door, with the contents inside shifting as if something was alive inside. It didn't take a genius to figure out who it was. "It's Blunk."

Blunk came out of the pile of garbage with a friendly smile. "Blunk new pad groovy, huh?"

"I think you mean, gravy!" Jade waved a hand in front of her face to block out the stench. "You smell worse than demon breath!"

"Thank you. Blunk tries." Blunk poured some rotten gravy over his body while pulling out an old cell phone. "Flip-flop tongue scrapper!" He literally scraped the old phone on his tongue.

"Blunk, we're incredibly busy." Jackie said. "And it's difficult to concentrate with your… your…" He tried to sound sincere, but Uncle beat him to it with a blunt statement.

"Passling smell terrible! Take a bath!" Uncle stated.

Blunk looked in horror at the mention of that word "Bath bad!" He hid in the garbage.

"No. Soapy-water-bath good." Caleb told him in annoyance. "Stinky-stink, bad!" He tried to pull Blunk out, but he seemed too deep. Tohru motioned for Caleb to step aside as he actually lifted the dumpster up, flipped it, and shook it; causing all the garbage and Blunk to fall out.

"AAAH!" Blunk screamed upon being found out. He desperately pulled out an old fish. "Give Tohru free treasure! Old fish!" He threw it at Tohru's face and quickly made a break for it, much to everyone's disgust as Tohru fell flat on his back.

The group helped the sumo back on his feet as he rubbed the grime from his face. "I hate fish."

"Pretty sure _everybody _hates rotten fish." Jade commented.

"Uncle, please tell me you have a spell that can clean him." Jackie hopped.

"Magic must defeat _magic_! Not smelly Passling!" Uncle stated.

* * *

_The Next Day – Sheffield Institute _

"Hey, don't forget guys, practice today by the river." Will told the other girls, including Jade, as she put her stuff away in her locker.

"Before we get into all the cool magic stuff, I need you guys' help." Jade said.

"With your hair, make-up, and fashion sense?" Cornelia commented in a mocking joke. "I thought you would never ask."

Jade rolled her eyes but chose to ignore the blonde. "Blunk's been hopping from dumpster-to-dumpster all across the city. He's stinking up our shop worse than Uncle's garlic breath."

"He even stopped by my restaurant one time." Hay Lin pointed out. "And my mom and dad have the health inspector coming."

"So, we got a common enemy them." Jade said. "As much as I love the old toad, he needs a serious bath."

"He's willing to take a bath?" Taranee asked.

Jade scoffed. "About as much as Uncle is willing to admit he's wrong about something."

"Yeah, this sounds serious." Irma got the message.

"Okay, we'll do it before practice." Will said.

Cornelia groaned. "Why can't we have _regular _problems? Like 'are my shoes so retro they're not cool? Just plain old?' No! We have to give a sponge-bath to a barf toad!"

"As much as he stinks, it could still be worse." Jade said.

"How?" Cornelia questioned.

"Try clipping Shendu's oversized toe-nails." Jade shivered. "I still get nightmares about demonic toe-jam."

The other girls cringed in disgust. "Thanks, so much for that image, Jade." Irma said sarcastically.

* * *

_Meridian – Phobos' Throne Room _

The dark prince himself held recently excavated the seven-pointed star in his hands. "The Star of Threbe!"

"Are you certain?" Cedric hissed in wonder.

"I can sense the magic of the mage." Daolon Wong said. "As well as the residual energy similar to that of the Heart of Kandrakar. Without a doubt, that _is _the Star."

"Indeed." Phobos agreed. "After a decade of searching, the Star will bring my sister to me." However, though Phobos wouldn't say it aloud, there was some reluctance upon using it. This was the same artifact that saved his mother's life back when she was still a child. However, given the persistence of Jackie Chan and the Guardians, as well as the resources they have on Earth, it was the only way for him to find his sister. And he _will_ use it.

* * *

_Earth – Heatherfield _

Blunk continued to scavenge through piles of trash and filth, looking for whatever 'treasures' he could trade, while also deeply enjoying the filth he was practically swimming through. However, he looked in surprise to see the six girls on the other side of the alleyway. Will, Jade, and Irma held large brushes in their hands as Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin carried buckets of soap-water.

"Bath time, Blunk." Jade smirked as she wore a pair of sunglasses. Without warning, the six girls charged at the smelly Passling. Hay Lin, Cornelia, and Taranee threw the soap-water over him as Jade, Will, and Irma tried to scrub him down. However, Blunk's head stuck out of the soap bubbles as he somehow wore a diver's suit, complete with a snorkeler and goggles.

"Is that a wet suit?" Will questioned in surprise and annoyance.

"Or trash-bag suit." Blunk said, as his body was protected from the cleanliness the girls were trying to force on him. He then rushed past the girls upon seeing a garbage truck. "Buh-bye!" Before they could even react, he dove into the dumpster the garbage truck was collecting and dumped back into the even bigger pile of garbage as the truck drove off.

"That guy's more slippery than Jade!" Cornelia stated.

"And that's saying something." Jade herself commented, not denying Cornelia's comment.

"He's heading for the river!" Will stated as they saw the garbage truck heading in that direction.

"We'll never catch him!" Hay Lin exclaimed.

"Not in _human _form." The leader of the Guardians said, getting all their attention.

"Oooh, does that mean what I think it means…?" Jade smiled eagerly.

"Okay, this is only supposed to be used for fighting evil, but that smell is as close to evil as I wanna get!" Will pointed a finger at Jade's face. "Do _not _tell Jackie!"

"My lips are sealed." Jade smirked as Will took out the Heart of Kandrakar and said her two favorite words.

"**Guardians Unite!"**

After yet another flashy transformation, that Jade honestly still couldn't get enough of; Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin had transformed into WITCH. They immediately took to the skies.

"Time to go catch a Blunk." Irma said.

"Way ahead of you guys!" Jade stated as she was also hovering in the air with them, much to their surprise.

"Jade?! How are you…?!" Taranee exclaimed.

"Rooster Talisman for levitation plus and Rabbit Talisman for speed equals flight." Jade revealed the two aforementioned Talismans she had in her fingers. "Figured catching the stinker wasn't gonna be easy. You can't leave the J out of J-WITCH."

"Aren't those supposed to be locked up in Section 13?" Will questioned.

"How you managed to sneak in and out of a secret government facility, I'll never know." Cornelia commented.

"You guys wanna talk all day or you wanna catch Blunk before he becomes the world's biggest stink bomb?" She questioned before she used the two Talismans to fly after the garbage truck. The five Guardians shares shrugs while Will just sighed and shook her head before they flew after her.

* * *

Meanwhile, Cedric, in his human disguise as 'Rick Hoffman' hung the Star of Threbe up at his window display. One would assume it was a simple decoration, but truthfully, it carried a much more sinister purpose. It soon began to emanate a faint green glow.

At the same time, in a separate location of Heatherfield, Elyon Brown felt dizzy for a moment as she briefly placed a hand on the wall to steady herself. Before she could even register what was going on, her body moved, almost on its own. She walked down the street, as if something was calling her.

* * *

Blunk had made it to the river, specifically toward the park at the bank of the river. Currently, he was inside a trash can, helping himself to the garbage inside as a snack. "Snack-hat. Yum." He ate the banana-peel that was on his head.

Suddenly, Blunk gave a yelp as he was telekinetically lifted into the air, curtsey of Jade with the Rooster Talisman as she hovered in the air alongside the WITCH girls in their Guardian form.

"You've been jacked, by J-WITCH." Jade smirked.

"And it's bath time!" Will practically sung, much to Blunk's horror.

"NOOO!"

"I wash, you dry." Irma said to Hay Lin, but Cornelia had a better idea.

"Oh, why waste our powers? Let's just throw him in the river." The blonde suggested.

"Cannon-ball Blunk!" Jade telekinetically through the Passling into the river. Though the Passling was capable of swimming, he did not like that all his hard-earned filth was being washed away.

"Okay, when he swims to shore, then we'll give him a proper scrubbing." Will said.

However, that did not prove to be the case as a garbage-barge sailed along the river, which was the very thing Blunk swam toward and climbed up into. Once he dove back into the filth, he didn't hesitate to not only cover himself in the garbage again, but even eat some of it. "Ooh! Salad bar boat!"

"Oh no!" Taranee groaned in annoyance along with the other girls.

"Toad's more slippery than _me_!" Jade stated.

"And that's saying something." Cornelia said.

* * *

Meanwhile, Elyon found herself practically sleepwalking toward the bookstore. It was almost as if she wasn't even fully aware of her actions, almost as if something else was telling her to come to this place. She walked inside, finding herself drawn straight toward the Star of Threbe.

Without even a single thought, the young girl took the so-called ornament and placed it around her neck before walking outside. This did not go unnoticed by the disguised Cedric who could only sneer evilly.

"So, the sister of Phobos is finally identified. Now it's only a matter of time."

However, Cedric was not the only one who took notice of this. Less than a block away, further down the street, a single black van remained parked along the side. But this wasn't just any ordinary van, it was a small observation point controlled by Section 13. Ever since it was revealed that the bookstore was built on an inversion point between Earth and Meridian, Jackie had talked with Captain Black about a possible hiding spot for Cedric. So, the head of Section 13 had an observation team placed there to keep tabs on who goes in or out. So far, they have not seen the owner's face, and it only seemed like citizens would come in-and-out so far. But that still didn't stop them from taking pictures of each person, which included Elyon wearing the Star of Threbe around her neck.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the river, the Guardians and Jade hovered in the sky above the moving garbage barge where Blunk was practically nesting.

"Oh well, I guess we could swoop down and give him a good scrubbing." Will suggested.

"But he'll see us coming a mile away." Taranee said. "And so will the guys on the barge."

"No problem." The hovering Jade brandished a third Talisman, the Snake Talisman. "That's why I brought this puppy."

"The Snake Talisman?" Hay Lin exclaimed.

"Jade, how many Talismans did you steal?!" Cornelia exclaimed.

"Not stolen, borrowed!" Jade corrected. "And it's only these three."

"You know we're gonna have a serious talk once this is done." Will's eyelids lowered.

"Says the girl who transformed everyone else into Guardians." Jade replied with a scoff.

Rather than continue their argument; Will and Irma joined Jade's hands, as Taranee held onto Will's hand, and Cornelia hers, while Hay Lin held onto Irma's hand. Jade activated the Snake Talisman's power and all six of them turned completely invisible.

"Let's get the little stink-ball." Irma said as they flew straight down toward the barge.

* * *

Meanwhile, at least a mile away, the Star of Threbe around Elyon's neck began to glow green and emanate an invisible green pulse which shot out like lightning. It stretched all the way from her location straight toward the river.

* * *

As the six invisible girls drew closer toward the barge, they failed to notice the green energy surging through the skies to zap all of them. The Heart of Kandrakar, as well as the Snake, Rabbit, and Rooster Talismans all briefly glowed green before the six girls turned visible and fell into the river.

Blunk couldn't help but laugh as he saw the girls all fall. "Blunk dry! Girls bath!"

"What the heck just happened?!" Jade exclaimed as their heads popped out of the river.

"Maybe you dropped the Talismans." Hay Lin said.

"Nah, got em right here." Jade held up all three of the Talismans in her hand. "Now come on, he's getting away!" She tried to jump, trying to use the Rooster's power to levitate, only to fall back into the river. "What the…?"

"Jade?" Taranee asked in worry.

"Uh, you might wanna check the batteries on the Talismans." Irma said in a nervous tone, despite the joke.

"Okay, invisibility!" Jade held up the Snake Talisman, only for nothing to work. "Super speed?" Still nothing with the Rabbit Talisman. Her face practically paled in horror as none of the Talismans were working "Uh… this is bad..."

"Let's get back to shore." Hay Lin tried to fly up, but her wings didn't flap and she was unable to pull herself from the water, much to her surprise. "Guys… I can't fly!"

Now the group was getting more than a little nervous. "Irma, clear us a path to shore." Will told her. Irma held up her hands to try and clear the water away, only for nothing to happen.

"Nothing's happening! Will, we've lost our powers!" Irma exclaimed as all six girls gasped.

"Okay, okay, let's not panic. Let's not panic!" Will said as they swam to shore.

"Not panic?! Your powers aren't working, and the Talismans are suddenly duds!" Jade almost shouted. "I'd say it's a pretty good time to panic!"

"But why don't we have a panic attack _after _we change back to normal?" Cornelia suggested.

Will took out the Heart of Kandrakar, which had ceased its vibrant glow. "Change back!" Nothing happened. This caused all six girls to look in absolute fear as it would appear that even the Heart of Kandrakar was rendered powerless. "Bad day."

* * *

_Meridian _

What could be considered a relatively peaceful day in Meridian, grew much more ominous as dark clouds fell over the castle town. All the people looked up toward the dark clouds as thunder rolled and lightning struck. It would seem that a storm was coming, but not a natural storm.

Phobos and Daolon Wong stood on the balcony as they observed the change in scenery.

"Clouds of thunder that do not bring rain." Wong observed. "Often portrayed as an omen of a growing darkness."

Cedric, in his monstrous serpent-form, came onto the scene. "Tell me!" Phobos demanded. "Tell me the Star of Threbe has located the girl!"

"She took it placed it around her neck." Cedric confirmed with a hiss.

Phobos couldn't help but chuckle. "Soon, all of the power of Meridian shall be mine!"

As Phobos basked in his apparent victory, he failed to notice a dangerous glint on Wong's eyes. _'Yes, saver this small victory fool. But you will soon learn that it is not you whom this realm will bow to, but me!'_

* * *

_Earth _

With Jade's cellphone, the girls were able to call Jackie to pick them up from the park, where he drove them back to Uncle's Rare Finds where Uncle and Tohru were waiting. Yan Lin had also been called in as well once she heard the situation. Of course, the girls had to explain to Jackie why they were stuck in Guardian form, and why Jade had three of the Talismans. Though Jackie was disappointed with them, that was not even the worst part of the scolding.

"Ow!"

"Ow!"

"Ow!"

"Ow!

"Ow!"

"Ow!"

Will, Irma, Cornelia, Hay Lin, Taranee, and even Jade, all rubbed their foreheads as Uncle delivered his titular dope-slap to all six of them.

"How many times must Uncle tell you?! Magic must defeat _magic_! Not smelly Passling!" the elderly chi-wizard shouted.

"Yeah, we get it, we're bad Guardians." Cornelia said. "But what the hell happened to our powers?! Even the Talismans don't work!"

Jackie just got off the phone. "I just spoke with Captain Black. It's not just the ones Jade took; the other Talismans are not working."

"_All _of the Talismans?!" Tohru questioned in surprise. "How is this even possible?"

"But I didn't even have the other Talismans on me!" Jade complained.

"You were not supposed to have _any _of them on you, Jade!" Jackie scolded. "How many times must I say that the Talismans are only supposed to be used for emergencies!"

"Well…" Hay Lin said nervously. "You did notice how bad Blunk stunk up the neighborhood, and my parents had the health inspector coming. So, it might not have been Phobos or Valmont or anything, but it was kind of an emergency."

"Jackie, look." Will began. "I know we all screwed up here, Jade especially."

"Hey!" Jade protested.

"And we're sorry, but we had no control over our powers suddenly turning off on us." Will continued. "We really need your help if we're gonna fix this."

"Of course." Jackie assured. "But we need to know what the problem is before we can solve it."

"Well don't you guys have a chi-spell, or a cream, or roll-on or something?" Irma questioned, only for Uncle to dope-slap her once more. "Ow!"

"How can Uncle prepare spell if we do not know what problem is?" Uncle questioned.

"He does have a point." Taranee seemed to agree.

Yan Lin began to think. "Hmm, you've lost your powers, as have even the Talismans, and we know that Phobos is searching for his heir."

"Phobos is responsible for this?" Jackie questioned.

"Could this also be the work of Daolon Wong?" Tohru also wondered

"Perhaps neither of them directly." Yan Lin explained. "There is a story of a long-lost stone. Back when Meridian was a peaceful, happy place, a young girl, Weira, the heir to the throne, and Phobos' mother, wondered from her parents and was lost. Her parents were frantic and beseeched the Mage for help. The Mage used the Heart of Kandrakar to create a locator stone: a seven-pointed star. This star had the power to summon one who is lost and render powerless anything or anyone that may prevent that person from returning home. But if activated, the Star could never be destroyed and might one day serve their enemies. Despite the risk, Weira's parents used the Star's power. Weira was drawn to the star, it guided her safely back to her family. Her father threw the Star into the volcano of Threbe, hoping to destroy it, or at the very least keep it away from their enemies."

"I am assuming that this not merely a legend." Jackie had a bad feeling he knew what was coming.

"Correct." Yan Lin confirmed in a grave tone. "If Phobos found it, this explains the loss of your powers. The Guardians are trying to prevent his sister's return home."

"But what about the Talismans?" Jade asked. "And how come they're all not working?"

"It is possible the Star senses the power of the Talismans as a potential threat to missing heir." Uncle assumed. "And thus, all twelve are rendered powerless with the Heart of Kandrakar."

"How long will they be powerless?" Hay Lin asked.

"It could be an hour." Yan Lin replied, much to the relief of the girls, as well as Jackie and Tohru. "Or it could be forever." That stuck all of them like a horror show.

"You mean the… _really… _long forever…?" Cornelia stuttered in fear.

"Loss of power not important." Uncle quickly stated. "The _reason_ for loss of power is. With the power of the Star of Threbe, the Forces of Darkness have likely found the loss heir to Meridian's throne."

It was then, they all knew the gravity of their situation. "Bad day." Jackie said.

"I already said that." Will commented.

* * *

Sometime later, Caleb had arrived at Uncle's Rare Finds once Yan Lin called him. After telling him about the situation, the young rebel was more than willing to help, albeit showing off his pride as well.

"So, you came to me for help." Caleb commented. "That was smart, real smart."

"Now if only _you _were smart, _real _smart." Cornelia grumbled.

"That's enough." Jackie broke up the disagreement before it could start. "Caleb, can you tell us anything about the Star of Threbe?"

"I don't know much about the Star, only the stories around it." Caleb began as he pulled out a map of Meridian and placed it on the counter. "But I do know about Phobos' mining operation at the Volcano of Threbe."

"How can you mine a volcano?" Jade questioned. "Wouldn't you get burnt alive by the lava?"

"The volcano's been extinct for years." Caleb explained. "And it seemed Phobos was digging for Threbite, it's a fuel, but it seems that wasn't his main target."

"Then it would seem the Star of Threbe was Phobos' true objective." Tohru concluded.

"So, how do we get our powers back?" Irma asked.

"The legend of the Star says that the only way it's power can be removed once the Star is passed onto a new owner." Caleb answered.

"So, there is no other way?" Jackie asked. "Uncle, there is no spell that can cancel the affects or restore the girls' powers?"

"The Star of Threbe is ancient and powerful magic, constructed from the power of the Heart of Kandrakar itself." Uncle said. "All other forms of magic, good and dark, are powerless against it. The only way to restore the power of the Guardians and the Talismans is for the current holder of the Star to surrender it willingly."

"So, we can't just take it." Hay Lin assumed.

"Correct." Uncle confirmed.

"What about Phobos, Wong, or the other bad guys?" Taranee asked. "Wouldn't they be powerless to?"

"Phobos and his allies seek to bring the princess _back _to Meridian." Yan Lin explained. "Though it is for evil purposes, their objective fits the Star's requirement, as such the Star of Threbe does not consider them a threat."

Jackie gave a sigh as he knew what that meant. "So, while the Guardians and Talismans are powerless, Phobos and forces aren't."

"Oh, that's just great." Will muttered sarcastically.

* * *

_Meridian – Phobos Castle _

Daolon Wong stood before a large magical map of the realm of Meridian as he had something to show Phobos.

"My prince, the Shadowkhan have discovered a new portal." The dark wizard pointed to the location on the map. "It is just outside the Earth city within solid rock."

Phobos smiled evilly as this was the perfect opportunity. "If the Star has chosen correctly, the Guardians are powerless, even with human lives at stake."

"My sentiments exactly." Wong agreed. "What should you have me do, my prince?"

Phobos took out a potted plant which appeared to carry a form of Venus Fly Trap, only the 'mouths' were much more active, looking to bite and devour anything that wondered into their jaws. "Put this through the portal, use your magics."

"As you wish." Wong sneered.

* * *

_Earth _

Daolon Wong appeared in a small puff of blue smoke, having passed through the portal onto Earth. The dark chi wizard appeared to be below a train-track bridge. He took out the plant Phobos had given to him and threw it toward the ground. Wong then began to recite a dark chant before he cast his dark magic from his scepter onto the plant, causing it to grow exponentially. The massive, carnivorous plant coiled itself like a snake around the brick abutment and began to devour the wood and metal on the bridge.

Meanwhile, Blunk dug through an old cart filled with coal when he heard a monstrous call. The Passling ran out of the tunnel he was in and saw the giant plant beginning to devour the plant as well as the laughing Daolon Wong below the bridge.

"Not good."

* * *

_Uncle's Rare Finds_

As Uncle worked with Tohru and Yan Lin to prepare a special type of chi-spell, Jackie had provided some tea for the young girls in order to ease some of the stress they had been feeling.

"Thanks for the tea, Jackie." Taranee said. "Even though we messed up."

"While I will say that I do not approve of the reason you choose to use your powers, it was at the very least for a relatively good cause." Jackie said. "As opposed to cheating or anything like that. And to be fair, I cannot stand how Blunk currently smells either."

"Thank you!" Irma exclaimed. "Glad to know it's not us."

"So, what's Grandma, Uncle, and Tohru up to?" Yan Lin asked as they looked towards the back.

"Though they might not be able to restore the power of the Heart of the Talismans, they're working to prepare a special chi-spell that will still enable them to fight if Phobos or anyone tries to take advantage of this situation." Jackie explained.

"Yeah, cause if I were a bad guy, I would totally do something bad right now." Jade added.

Cornelia found herself looking into one of the mirror-antiques in the shop. "Maybe older boys will like me like this." She said, almost as if she was ready to accept being in her Guardian form permanently.

"Really? That's what you're worried about right now?" Will questioned irritably. However, an odd and unwanted stench soon filled the air. "Hey, does that chi-spell happen to smell like garbage?"

However, that was not the case as everyone recognized the smell. "He's back." Hay Lin said as the six girls and Jackie walked out the backway and opened the back door to see Blunk holding a trash-can lid up like a shield.

"Big bad thing! Important!" Blunk shouted urgently.

"What?" Jade scoffed as she and everyone else kept their noses plugged. "You stole crap from the sewers to?"

"For news, trade? No bath!" Blunk stated.

"Fine, no bath, for now." Jackie accepted. "What is so important?"

"Bad wizard! Giant plant! Eating train tracks!"

"Bad wizard…?" Will's eyes widened, as did everyone else. "It's Wong!"

"Girls, get Uncle and Tohru!" Jackie told them. "I will call Captain Black for help!"

* * *

Jackie drove a van as fast as he could toward the spot Blunk had previously told him and the girls. The occupants of the van were Jackie, WITCH, still stuck in their Guardian-forms, along with Tohru, Caleb, Uncle, and even Blunk.

"Yes Captain." Tohru was on the phone, speaking with Captain Black. "Yes we…. What?! You can't stop it! Alright, we'll get to work!" He hung up.

"So, what's the damage?" Will asked.

"Captain Black was able to stop all trains from proceeding down this track." Tohru informed. "But he couldn't stop an active train which should cross by the bridge Blunk told us about. Its already enroot."

"How long do we have?" Jackie asked as he continued to drive.

"Less than ten minutes." Tohru replied, causing the girls to gasp as Jackie drove even faster.

"Oh, I feel awful!" Hay Lin exclaimed in shame. "A few hours ago, we had our powers, and we were using them…"

"To wash a large rodent." Cornelia grumbled, also feeling just as ashamed as the others.

"And now that we really need them…!" Taranee said in the same tone.

"Hey, people do amazing things every day without powers. Just look at Jackie, Tohru, and the rest of the J-Team!" Jade said, popping up from the back.

"That doesn't mean it'll be easy Jade." Jackie said, only for him to gasp as he and everyone else looked in surprise. "Jade!"

"How'd you even get in here?! Weren't you supposed to stay at Uncle's shop with Miss Lin?!" Will questioned.

"Well, I'm kind of just as responsible as the rest of you." Jade confessed. "If I wasn't screwing around with the Talismans, we might be able to use them now."

"It is nobody's fault." Uncle spoke, in an unusually sincere tone. "It is the fault of the Forces of Darkness for using Star of Threbe!"

"For once, the old man's right." Caleb agreed. "Blaming ourselves now is not going to change what we need to do. We'll just have to solve this without using powers. Which really isn't all that different for me."

Jackie continued to drive the van down a hill when he spotted the bridge, as well as the enormous and carnivorous plant that was continuing to devour it. "There!" Blunk hopped onto the back of the driver's seat and pointed to the plant. "Big hungry plant!"

"I see it. But where is Daolon Wong?" Jackie stated. However, it would appear he got a response in the form of a dark magic blast that knocked the van on its side.

The back door was punched open by Tohru, as it would appear, he used himself as a make-shift airbag to protect Uncle, Caleb, and the girls. Jackie was also able to front door which was pointing upward, allowing himself and Blunk to climb up and out.

"Yeah, I think we found him." Jade pointed nervously toward the dark chi wizard that faced them

Daolon Wong chuckled once he saw all of them. "So predictable. Even without magic powers, you cannot help yourselves when it comes to innocent lives. And your heroic selflessness will be your undoing. **Gan! Ren! Chui!" **In three puffs of dark blue smoke, the Dark Chi Enforcers had been summoned to the battlefield. "Destroy Chan and the Guardians!"

"Dude, do you always summon us just for that?" Finn asked.

"Yeah, it wouldn't hurt to call us just for lunch or something." Ratso agreed.

"Lunch you say?!" Wong questioned irritably. "I will personally feed you to Phobos' river beasts if you do not crush these fools!"

"Yeah, you know what, lunch is overrated." Chow said in a frightened tone as he and his friends brandished their weapons to face the heroes.

"Girls, take Blunk and try and stop that plant." Jackie told them. "Uncle, Tohru, Caleb, and I will deal with this." He said as the four charged at the enemy.

"How the heck are we supposed to do that?" Irma questioned.

"Duh!" Jade pointed toward a pile of tools consisting of pick-axe spades. Wasting no time, the six girls and the Passling each grabbed a tool and began to climb up the bricks toward the plant while Jackie and the others dealt with Wong and his Dark Chi Enforcers.

Jackie ducked underneath Finn's multiple slashes with his bladed weapon before grabbing his arm and flipping him over his shoulder. Finn however quickly recovered and threw his massive shuriken at Jackie, though he ducked to avoid it, the rapid-spinning weapon turned around and gunned straight for Jackie like a homing missile, much to his shock as he quickly ran to try and avoid it.

Caleb quickly grabbed a pickaxe from the ground and clashed it against the staff wielded by Chow. They clashed and parried their respective weapons, but when they locked with one another, Chow swept his feet to knock Caleb down. Chow then leapt into the air to drive the staff onto Caleb, but he rolled out of the way to avoid the otherwise painful strike. Caleb quickly got back on his feet and raised his fists before going on the defensive from Chow's continued strikes.

Tohru charged straight for Ratso, but the Dark Chi Enforcer swung his mallet into Tohru's gut, sending him flying across the area and rolling onto the ground. The sumo groaned as he rubbed his head but was quick to react upon hearing Ratso's charging yell. Right as he was about to swing his hammer down on him, Tohru grabbed Ratso and used his own momentum to haul him over his shoulder, sending him crashing onto the brick wall. However, it would appear Ratso was much stronger as a Dark Chi Warrior, because he was quickly able to get back up and attack Tohru once more.

At the same time; the six girls and Blunk had made it closer toward the top where the massive plant had coiled itself around the train tracks. They didn't waste any time to try and hack at the plane with their make-shift weapons. However, while they were able to cut through the outer layer, it was quite tough and would take more than a few hits to deal any significant damage.

One of the plant-heads was about to chomp down on the only non-Guardian girl present. "Jade, look out!" Cornelia called just in time as the head thrusted at Jade, but she was able to beat it back by swinging her shovel.

"Back off plant-man! I got a shovel and I'm not afraid to use it!" Jade swung it again, only for the plant-head to duck and headbutt Jade, sending her falling off with a scream. Fortunately, she didn't fall very far as Will had reached over to grab her by the leg and pull her back up. "Thanks, Will."

"No problem." Will replied before the two resumed their attempt at cutting the plant.

Blunk appeared to be next as he to tried to cut the plant with his pickaxe, only for a separate plant-head to ensnare him with its elastic tongue and attempted to devour him. "It ate Blunk!" Irma exclaimed.

However, the plant-head didn't appear to like the taste of Blunk's unhygienic form before it literally upchucked and spat Blunk out like a loogie all the way to the ground, much to the Passing's own disgust, and the girls' surprise.

"Huh, guess it's a good thing he didn't take a bath." Hay Lin observed.

"Less talking, more cutting!" Will exclaimed as the girls continued to try and cut at the roots of the plant while also fighting back the hissing plant-heads.

Daolon Wong laughed as he saw not only the Guardians in such a predicament, but even his Dark Chi Enforcers having Jackie, Tohru, and Caleb apparently on the ropes. "Who would have thought, that the meddlesome Jackie Chan and even the mighty Guardians of the Veil would be bested by a simple plant."

"Hothca!" The dark chi wizard saw Uncle standing in front of him while also aiming a dried lizard at him, but Wong didn't appear the least bit intimidated. "I can see where Chan got his foolishness from. What hope can a powerless novice like yourself possible…!" He was quickly cut off by a blast of green chi magic from Uncle's dried lizard, knocking him down.

"Dark wizard talks too much." Uncle said. "But I will shut him up by giving him a piece of Uncle!"

Wong got up and looked in surprise. "How…? The Star of Threbe should have…"

"Star has power to prevent outside forces from harming missing heir." Uncle said. "But this stun-spell was made _after _Star's power was activated. And is not being used to harm heir, but to kick evil butt!"

Wong snarled. "Clever, but it'll take more than a simple stun spell to defeat me!" He threw out his scepter to blast multiple dark magic bolts, but Uncle proved nimble enough to avoid the bolts as he shot more stun-blasts at Wong.

Meanwhile, Jackie continued to dodge Finn's attacks and found himself backed into a literal corner as Finn tried to slash his weapon down on him, but Jackie grabbed Finn by the arms and tried to press back against his own strength. However, Jackie soon heard the sound of the incoming train. It would be hear in mere moments, causing him to look rather nervous.

* * *

Back at Cedric's bookstore, the disguised shapeshifter turned around when he heard his store's door open to reveal Elyon wearing the Star of Threbe around her neck as she walked into the store. "May I help you?" He asked with a knowing smile.

"I… I think I stole this jewel from your window display." Elyon confessed in an embarrassed and ashamed tone, looking at the Star.

"Oh, it's not a jewel. It's practically worthless." Cedric said, trying to sound forgiving, while also hiding the fact that it was currently negating the Guardians' powers in their life-and-death situation they were facing at this very moment.

"I don't know why I took it, it's not like me." Elyon removed it and handed it back to Cedric. "Here, it's yours."

"No!" Cedric voiced in surprise, but quickly hid it. "You… should keep it."

"Nuh uh." Elyon shook her head as she backed away. "It kind of freaks me out." She however, spotted something on a table that caught her attention. "Are those school year books?"

Cedric hid his frustrated expression, no doubt the Guardians would get their powers back since Elyon willingly gave the Star away. But it was a small defeat, since he knows who his target is now. He put the star away and put on a friendly façade as he answered the girl.

"Yes, I believe so. I'm afraid I'm rather disorganized. I could certainly use someone like you to help me part-time?" He offered.

"Really?" Elyon asked in excitement. She took out an old yearbook with a small laugh. "Now, don't laugh, here's what I looked like last year."

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the train tracks, there was a bright violet glow coming from the Heart of Kandrakar that got everyone's attention, both good and evil. Will's wings flapped, as did the other Guardians. "Our powers are back!"

Jade took out the Rooster, Snake, and Rabbit Talismans she still had on her and could feel the power, evident as she used the Snake Talismans to turn invisible briefly. "Hell yeah! J-WITCH is back baby!"

"Alright; Jade, you and I help Jackie and the others!" Will instructed her friends. "Everyone else, time for some weed-whacking!"

All six of the girls took flight as Will and Jade shot down while Irma, Cornelia, Hay Lin, and Taranee flew around the plant that desperately tried to chomp down and bite on them.

Chow had Caleb pinned to the wall with one hand as he readied his staff in the other "Hey shades! Head's up!" Jade called as she flew straight at Chow's face, foot first. She flew at such intense speed that one kick sent him flying pretty hard.

At the same time, as Jackie continued dodge Finn's strikes, Will flew down and delivered a punch to Finn's face and knock him down, while also kicking the downed bladed weapon away. Though he quickly got back up, he was now stuck on the defensive from both Will and Jackie as they lashed out with punches and kicks, which he could barely block and avoid.

Tohru, meanwhile, was struck down by a hammer-strike to his face from Ratso's large mallet. But, before Ratso could press the attack, Jade ran at super speed all around Ratso. It made the Dark Chi Enforcer dizzy just trying to find her, but that wasn't Jade's objective, it was to kick up a dust-cloud to completely blind Ratso.

"Hey…" He said in between-coughs. "I can't see anything…!" However, as the dust cloud around Ratso cleared, he failed to notice Tohru getting back up from behind. And when he did turn around, the only thing he could register was an uppercut from Tohru's massive fist to send him flying.

"Looks like someone's blasting off today." Jade smirked as she hovered near Tohru, via the Rooster Talisman, as they shared a high-five.

Meanwhile, the other four Guardians continued to fly around the massive carnivorous plant as it desperately tried to bite down on them. Cornelia however was able to pull a large rock from the ground and telekinetically throw it into one of the plant-heads' mouths. The weight of the boulder pulled the entire head down and crushed it onto the ground, leaving only two remaining heads.

"Plants _are _ninety-five percent water." Irma smirked as she and Hay Lin both flew around the massive plant like a tornado, while combining their respective elements. Irma used her powers to magically extract nearly every drop of water from the mouths of the remaining two plant-heads. This not only severely dehydrated the plant, but the water propelled the heads in a motion to completely unwind themselves from the train track, sending the massive plant plummeting onto the ground, to crush and poof Finn, Ratso, and Chow.

Now it was Taranee's turn as she created two large flames in her hands to completely burn and incinerate what was left of the plant. However, now was not the time to celebrate.

"Girls! The train!" Jackie exclaimed as they all heard the train's engine coming closer.

"Oh man!" Jade exclaimed. "I knew I should have brought the Ox Talisman!"

"Don't worry Jade, we got this." Will said. "Tohru, we might need your help."

Tohru nodded in understanding "Alright, get me up there." Both Will and Jade grabbed onto him, and though Will was much stronger than Jade in her own Guardian form, the two of them together were able to quickly lift the large Sumo up onto the ruined train-track. The bridge was still in relatively good shape, but the steel rails needed to be fixed as they were bent all out of shape.

Will and Tohru wasted no time in using their own strength to press the rails down while Taranee produced a flame on her finger to try and weld one rail together as the train was only seconds from arriving. Taranee just finished welding the final rail as she and Will grabbed Tohru and pulled him out of the way just as the train passed by. This caused all the flying girls and Tohru to breath a huge sigh of relief.

"Wow, just in time or what?" Hay Lin said.

"Save the celebration, we're not done yet." Will told everyone as they looked directly downward to their only remaining enemy.

Daolon Wong and Uncle clashed beams of their respective chi-magics while reciting their own chants. And even though Uncle could only manifest stun-blasts, this was enough to keep Wong occupied and leave him open for an attack.

"Daolon Wong!" The dark wizard turned to the side to see a flying kick from Jackie to hit and send him skidding across the ground. Wong soon found himself at the feet of Caleb with Blunk standing over his shoulder. Wong tried to pull himself up, only quickly found himself surrounded by Will, Irma, Jackie, Cornelia, Jade, Taranee, Hay Lin, Uncle, and Tohru as well.

"You can run Wong, but you can't hide. From J-WITCH." Jade said with a triumphant smirk as Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin readied their respective elements.

"Your powers have returned." Wong observed, although he didn't appear the least bit intimidated or angry. "No matter, the Star has served its purpose. Saver this empty victory, for it will likely be the last you will ever experience!" He threw his scepter out to cast some dark blue smoke to envelop himself right before he vanished as it cleared.

"Oh yeah? Then why are you running away?" Cornelia called out to him despite the fact that he was gone.

"Because he was correct." Uncle said in a gravely serious voice. "If your powers have returned, it is because the current holder of the Star of Threbe has given it to a new owner of her own accord."

"Which would mean, that Phobos has learned the identity of his sister." Tohru said in realization.

"And we still have no idea who she is." Jackie added in an equally grave tone. It was then that any celebratory mood any of the heroes had, quickly died, realizing that while they have won the battle, they might have just lost the war.

* * *

_Meridian – Phobos' Castle_

Both Daolon Wong and Cedric had returned to Meridian to report to the dark prince. The massive humanoid serpent had provided Phobos with a picture of Elyon, whom he could now say for certain is the missing heir to the throne.

"Your sister, the Princess." Cedric informed as he and Wong both bowed.

Phobos couldn't help but let loose the loudest and most booming and triumphant evil laugh he could muster, one that echoed throughout his entire throne room.

* * *

_Earth - Silver Dragon _

Despite the Guardians' being able to return to their mortal forms; Will, Irma, Cornelia, Taranee, Hay Lin, and even Jade looked borderline depressed as they sulked at a table. Yan Lin was quick to provide all six girls with some tea. "There is nothing for you girls to feel ashamed of." She told them.

Jade scoffed slightly. "We screwed around with magic and were completely helpless because of that. Now that bad guys have found the missing heir!"

"Even if you hadn't used your powers, Phobos would have still likely found his sister either way." Jackie said as he, Tohru, Caleb, and even Uncle joined them. "We had no knowledge of the Star of Threbe or what it could do."

"Maybe, but that still doesn't change the fact Phobos found his target and we have no idea who she is." Will said.

"I might have an idea."

The group turned around to see Captain Black himself enter the restaurant. "Captain Black? What are you doing here?" Caleb asked in surprise.

"How are the other Talismans?" Jade asked.

"All the Talismans appeared to have returned to normal." Captain Black assured. "But that's not why I'm here." He reached into his black overcoat to pull out a file folder, which he reached inside to pull out a photograph of a new bookstore, which he put on the table. "I trust you girls recognize this place."

The six girls did indeed recognize it. "Hey, it's that new bookstore that opened up." Hay Lin pointed out.

"The same one that also pulled us into that labyrinth that led us into Meridian." Taranee recalled.

"After that incident, I found it somewhat unusual that a store would be built on an inversion point between Earth and Meridian." Jackie explained. "So, I told Captain Black and asked him to keep an eye on it."

"I had an observation team watching the store twenty-four-seven." Captain Black explained. "I've seen some customers come in-and-out, but I never saw the owner of the store."

"So, unless he had a back door, or he was actually living inside it…." Will seemed to be able to put the pieces together just as Captain Black pulled out another photograph, this one of Rick Hoffman.

"That's him!" Cornelia pointed out. "That's the owner! I saw him when we first went into that store!"

"I had also sent an agent posing as a customer to get his name. Rick Hoffman." Captain Black continued. "I did a background check, and I found absolutely nothing. No birth records, no address of residency, no family backgrounds, nothing. Up until that store opened up, he didn't even exist."

"Phobos sent Cedric to Earth and Cedric _is_ a shapeshifter…" Caleb said.

"Wait, _that's_ Cedric?!" Irma exclaimed.

"it would appear so." Jackie nodded as he, Caleb, and Tohru narrowed their eyes at the photograph.

"Huh, for an evil shapeshifting man-snake, he looks pretty good." Jade commented.

"Okay, but how does that help us find the missing heir?" Taranee asked.

Captain Black pulled out another photograph. "This one was taken earlier this afternoon. And you said the artifact that nullified the Talismans' magic was a star? Would this be it?" He showed them the photograph of Elyon wearing the Star of Threbe.

"A seven-pointed star… that has to be it." Yan Lin stated.

"But… isn't that Elyon?" Will asked in surprise as her eyes widened in realization. "Wait… don't tell me…"

"If she is wearing the Star of Threbe, and if the legend about it is true that all other forms of magic used to prevent the heir's return to Meridian is true…" Tohru began as it all began sink in for the entire group.

"ELYON IS PHOBOS' SISTER?!" Jade practically screamed as all the girls gave audible gasps, the most shocked appeared to be Cornelia. "OUR CLASSMATE IS A MERIDIAN PRINCESS!?"

"No… No! That's impossible!" Cornelia exclaimed in denial. "She's my best friend! I've known her forever! Elyon was born right here in Heatherfield! There's no way she's Phobos' sister!"

"Which is why I'm going to conduct a thorough background check on her to make absolutely certain." Captain Black assured.

"You still have Phobos' hair?" Jackie asked.

"I do." Captain Black confirmed.

"How the heck do you have Phobos' hair?" Irma questioned.

"I kinda took some off him when we fought him in that labyrinth." Will explained. "I figured we could use some kind of fancy magic spell to track and find his sister, considering relatives share DNA."

"When that failed however, we handed it to Section 13." Tohru continued to explain. "So that if we got an idea as to who the heir was, we'd be able to make confirmation through matching their DNA."

"I'll perform a test and a background check now that we have a possible suspect." Captain Black said but caught a brief glance from Uncle. Black held out a hand defensively. "I know, I know, magic must defeat magic."

"Which is why you must make certain Elyon is the missing princess." Uncle told him. "If she is indeed Phobos' sister, her life is in grave danger."

Everybody present looked towards each other with serious expressions. On the positive side, they might have an idea of the identity of the true heir to Meridians' throne. However, it might also be one of their closest friends, especially to Cornelia. If this was true, they had to keep a very close eye on the girl. However, their thoughts were quickly brought to a halt by the sound of a familiar Passling laughing.

The six girls, along with Jackie, Yan Lin, Uncle, Captain Black, Caleb, and Tohru all ran outside to see Blunk riding in a dumpster down the street past them. He laughed as he gave a wave toward them. Most of the girls were about to run in pursuit when Will stopped them.

"Hold on a second." She said with a smirk. "Look where he's heading."

The group looked on and shared smirks of her own as they saw Blunk riding his dumpster straight into a carwash at the other end of the street. Blunk screamed and tried to get out, but it was too late. After going through the cleaning cycle, the dumpster rolled out, clean as a whistle with Blunk completely covered in smoke and squeaky clean.

"Now that is a clean Passling." Jade said as she pulled the cleaned Blunk out of the dumpster, with the group having already made it to the other side.

"Clean and Passling are two words that I thought would never come together." Caleb joked, resulting in most of the group laughing.

"Hey Jackie." Will said to the man, getting his attention. "I believe you told me once that the greatest victory is the battle _not _fought, right?"

Jackie smiled at the red-head girl. "Right." He ruffled her hair with a proud look on his face.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at Cedric's bookstore, Elyon had just walked in to greet the owner. "Hi again. It's Rick, right?"

"Yes, well uh… _Cedric_, actually."

"Oh, I like that better." Elyon said with a friendly smile. "So, were you serious about that part-time job thing?"

**Done. **

**So, yeah, it would seem that both the heroes and villains have learned Elyon's true heritage as Phobos' sister and the true heir to the throne of Meridian, with the heroes learning that Rick Hoffman is really Cedric in disguise. (Of course, Captain Black will need to make a confirmation as they still have Phobos' hair from the "Labyrinth" chapter.) This might come as a surprise to many of you since the Guardians found out too late about Cedric's true identity, but considering they're working with the Chan Clan, and Jackie is personal friends with a government agent who has considerable resources at his backing, it only made sense for them to put the pieces together.**

**But that doesn't mean that Elyon is safe. We all know how resourceful Phobos, Cedric, and Daolon Wong are. Things are going to get rather interesting from this point forward. **


	15. Revelations

**Hi everyone, thanks for waiting. So, in this chapter, both sides have absolute confirmation that Elyon is indeed the lost heir to Meridian's throne. Now the matter is who is able to get to her first? So, with that being said, let's begin.**

**Revelations **

Caleb ran as fast as he could through a twisted forest, his pursuers being a small group of Shadowkhan, and huge and grotesque caterpillar-like monster. Caleb might be a proud individual, but even he knew he was no match for his pursuers like this. The insect-monster roared as it curled after him, with the Shadowkhan leaping in the trees above him.

However, Caleb soon found himself at a roped bridged just by a waterfall. The bridge couldn't contain the weight of the monster, and the Shadowkhan likely couldn't leap over it, so Caleb assumed he was safe as he began to trek across the wobbly bridge, with his pursuers coming to a stop just before it.

Unfortunately, the young rebel leader found the other end of the bridge bared by a series of Lurdens. Caleb was trapped, and it seemed as though his enemies had no motives of self-preservation as the Shadowkhan, Lurdens, and even the caterpillar-like monster all slowly climbed onto the bridge, which was already beginning to crumble from their combined quake.

Fortunately for Caleb however, he spotted an open portal just below the bridge on the other side. Using this as his chance, Caleb wrapped his arm around the rope and drew his sword.

"Too bad, this used to be a nice bridge." Caleb sliced off one of the rope-supports, causing the bridge to shake, while knocking the Lurdens and Shadowkhan off balance. The caterpillar-monster tried to shoot a ball of webbing from an opening on its chest to stop Caleb, but he moved out of the way for the webbing to ensnare the Lurdens behind him. Caleb then sliced at the boards before slicing at the final rope to cut the bridge in half.

The giant caterpillar-monster clung to its end of the bridge and survived, while the Lurdens and Shadowkhan fell to their demise just as Caleb had swung into the open portal.

* * *

_Earth – Heatherfield _

Jade, Will, and Cornelia had entered an alleyway were an open portal was waiting for them. "Wonder what scary monster's gonna come out of it this time?" Jade asked excitedly.

"Well whatever it is, it'll have to find another portal, because this one is closed." Will took out the Heart of Kandrakar and was ready to seal it up when Cornelia spotted something in the portal, however.

"Wait, hold on a second! Something's coming!" The blonde stated as they looked in surprise to see Caleb go flying out and skidding hard across the ground before crashing into a wall.

"Caleb!" Cornelia exclaimed as she and Jade ran to him. Will used the Heart of Kandrakar to close the portal to make sure no monsters followed him through before she joined Cornelia and Jade on checking out Caleb, who appeared to be unconscious.

"Is he okay?" Will asked with concern.

"Does he look okay?!" Cornelia questioned, referring to his scrapped-up body. "Jade, tell me you stole the Horse Talisman!"

"Hey, I don't _steal _any Talismans, I borrow them!" Jade protested.

"Well did you 'borrow' the Horse one?" Cornelia questioned impatiently.

"Eh… not this time, sorry." Jade laughed nervously.

"Relax Cornelia, pretty sure your boyfriend isn't on death's door." Will joked.

"He's not my boyfriend! And he's hurt!" Cornelia protested. "Caleb!"

* * *

"_Caleb! Caleb!"_

_Caleb's eyes opened about half-way as he heard a familiar voice, but it didn't belong to Cornelia. "Oh… Uncle…"_

_The young rebel appeared to be in a dream-like state as he saw Uncle's head floating above him. "What happened? You were supposed to get into Phobos' castle but you got such a whooping!"_

"_I… I wanted to inform him… that we might have found the Princess… but the castle was… too heavily guarded…." Caleb replied weakly._

"_One more thing." Uncle said. "Since you are on Earth now, you must protect Elyon herself."_

"_But, aren't I dead?" Caleb asked weakly._

"_Aiya! How can you be dead?! You swung into the portal!" Uncle stated._

"_Oh… right…" Caleb recalled._

"_One more thing." Uncle's hand suddenly appeared to deliver a dope-slap to Caleb's forehead and wake him up._

* * *

"Ow!" Caleb woke up as he held his forehead, only to look in minor surprise as he saw the three girls gather around him.

"Caleb, you're okay!" Cornelia exclaimed in relief.

"Of course, I'm okay…" He tried to act tough. "It's gonna take more than that to kill me…. Ow!" He winced as he held his side.

"Oh yeah, you are a real Han Solo." Jade remarked with joking sarcasm.

"Come on, let's get you patched up." Will said as they helped him to his feet.

* * *

_Meridian – Phobos' Castle_

Phobos had threw a plum of magic sand onto the ground which began to take shape and project the image of his newly identified long-lost younger sister. Among those present were Daolon Wong, Cedric, and several guards, including the undercover Vathek.

"The face of my sister." Phobos said with a sinister smile. "After all these years."

"I've successfully won her confidence." Cedric hissed. "Her Earth-name is Elyon Brown."

"Elyon, hmmm." Wong mused. "A name that expresses majesty and humility at the same time. She'll make quite the addition to our little 'family', won't you agree, my prince?" He asked Phobos.

"She will indeed make an excellent princess… for a while." Phobos smirked as all three of them shared an evil laugh, not apparently noticing the serious expression on Vathek's face.

* * *

_Earth – Silver Dragon_

Caleb was led to the restaurant's basement by Will, Jade and Cornelia, where Irma, Taranee, and even Jackie had met up with them as he told them what had happened.

"…So, what do I do?" He told his story dramatically. "Cut the ropes and I swing… shoo! Magnificently right into the open portal!"

"Then you skid magnificently across paved sidewalk and into a wall." Cornelia smirked as she tended to some of the scrapes on his face.

"Ow! Careful!"

"Yeah, be careful Cornelia." Jade teased. "High and mighty hero is more fragile than one of Uncle's artifacts." This resulted in laughs from all the other girls present, including Cornelia, while Caleb just had a smirk.

"Caleb, why were you trying to get into Phobos' castle to begin with?" Jackie asked seriously, getting right to the point.

"I was trying to get in contact with Vathek about the heir's identity." Caleb answered.

However, before their conversation could delve in even further, Hay Lin quickly came in running downstairs. "Guys, guys, guess what?!" She got everyone's attention excitedly. But she noticed Caleb and his condition. "Wow, what happened to you?"

"Standard hero injuries." Cornelia answered simply.

"Huh, anyway, Elyon got a guy!" Hay Lin revealed, much to the girls' surprise.

"A guy?" Taranee questioned.

"Who?" Irma asked.

"She didn't tell me!" Cornelia shot up.

"Well it just happened!" Hay Lin continued. "This guy, Bryan, he's a dog-walker. They met when a Pomeranian stopped to sniff her ankle! Is that cute or what?"

"Does dog-boy know he's dating a magic princess; whose brother is one of the world's biggest jerkwads?" Jade questioned.

"We don't know that!" Cornelia stated, still in denial.

"She did have that magic star around her neck." Taranee pointed out.

"It must have been just a mistake! Maybe she took it because it looked cool!" Cornelia did not like this idea one bit, but no matter how much she tried to deny it, it was something they all had to consider.

"Then how come our powers wore off when she took put it on?" Irma questioned.

Before Cornelia could protest again, Jackie put a hand on her shoulder. "Cornelia, I understand if this is difficult, but we need to accept the possibility that Elyon might indeed be the lost heir."

"Well, have you heard anything from Captain Black yet?" Will asked.

"Not yet." Jackie replied. "These kinds of things have to take time. Not just DNA testing but looking into her family as well."

"So, if Elyon really is Phobos' sister, then who are those people she thinks are her parents?" Hay Lin asked.

"Maybe they adopted her." Taranee assumed. "She could have been dropped off at an orphanage when she was just a baby."

"You got any ideas rebel boy?" Irma asked Caleb.

"Honestly, I don't." The young rebel replied. "Nobody in the Rebellion knows who brought the missing heir to Earth."

"Really? They didn't come back and join the Rebellion or whatever?" Jade asked.

"No." Caleb shook his head.

"Well, even if she is Phobos' sister, we also know that bookstore owner is really Cedric. Let's go bring him down!" Cornelia stated.

"Patience, Cornelia." Jackie said. "We can't afford to charge in recklessly. They aren't aware that we know of them, for the moment we have the element of surprise."

"So, when the time does come to drop-kick Snake-boy, hiya!" She jumped in the air and delivered a kick for emphasis.

Cornelia couldn't help but look down at this. She had known Elyon since they were little kids, she was her best friend. So, the idea that she was some magical princess was news enough, but for her also to be the sister of Phobos?! That was mind-blowing. Well whatever the case, Cornelia was now a Guardian and she would protect Elyon with all her being if she had to!

* * *

_Meridian _

Much like before, Phobos bathed in the waters at the very bottom of his castle to replenish his own powers with that which lies within Meridian's natural landscape. Whenever that happened, the massive roots around the castle-town below all began to glow, something the people were all well used to.

"He takes our very life force." One woman said in disgust as she went to a fruit-stand which appeared to be run by Trill.

"Did you hear?" Trill asked. "They say the Princess has been found! All our troubles could be over!"

"I hope for my children's sake, it's true."

Blunk walked up to the pair with a backpack. "When trouble's over, have feast!" He took out a pair of ice-skates. "Cut food with these! Feet-knives!"

* * *

Meanwhile, as Phobos continued to bathe, Daolon Wong and Cedric reported to their prince an interesting piece of news.

"It's the guard, Vathek." Cedric reported. "He left the castle."

"The guards have permission to patrol the village." Phobos dismissed.

"He didn't leave to patrol, my prince." Wong said. "He took a day's food with him and left his weapons behind."

Phobos' eyes narrowed. "So, Vathek _is_ the spy we've been seeking. Meaning, he framed Raythor who was wrongfully cast into the Abyss of Shadows!" His fists clenched with anger in the water.

"There is nothing that can be done about Raythor, other than avenging him." Daolon Wong stated. "I will retrieve Vathek so that you may have the pleasure of punish him personally!"

"I cannot leave this to you alone, wizard!" Cedric hissed, resulting in a glare from Wong. "Chan and the Guardians must not know the princess' identity before I'm ready to take her!"

"Both of you will retrieve Vathek!" Phobos stated. "Take the Shadowkhan! Take the Larvek! Do not let him reach Earth!"

"As you wish." Both the shapeshifter and dark chi wizard bowed to Phobos before Wong swung his scepter and they both vanished in a puff of dark smoke.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the Castletown, Blunk began to demonstrate how his 'feet-knives' worked by skating up and down across a watermelon with a surprising amount of skill. "Slices. Dices. Chops. And…" He kicked a sliced piece into his mouth. "Come with own fork!"

The people around him all clapped, apparently quite impressed with his demonstration. Blunk bowed after his performance, but once he felt a hand on his shoulder, he entered his 'panic-mode'.

"Blunk do nothing! Businessman!"

This person however turned out to be none other than Vathek, who was currently wearing a hood. "Do you remember me?"

"All big blue things look same." Blunk stated.

"I helped Caleb escape the oubliette." Vathek reminded him.

"Oh yeah! Good blue thing!" Blunk did indeed remember him now. He picked up a piece of the sliced watermelon. "Fruit?'

"I have important news for Caleb!" Vathek said in a hushed whisper. "I need to find a portal!"

"Blue thing's lucky day! Blunk having portal special!"

"Special, huh?" They both looked upward in surprise to see the Dark Chi Enforcer Finn standing on a rooftop, alongside Ratso and Chow. "We got a special for you to."

"A special beat-down!" Chow said as the three of them leapt from the rooftop to face the surprised duo of Vathek and Blunk, causing all the people in the area to run away in fright.

"AAAHHH! Orange men! Very bad!" Blunk screamed.

It wasn't just them however, Cedric also came around the corner alongside Wong who held the Larvek with a chain of dark chi magic from his scepter. "There he is!" Cedric pointed out.

"AAAHH! Snake-man and bad wizard! Even more bad!" Blunk screamed again.

To add onto that were the moving shadows in the area which quickly surrounded the frightened pair and molded themselves to reveal a group of at least a dozen Shadowkhan.

"AAAHHH! Shadow men! Even more, _more_, bad!" Blunk screamed once more before Vathek ran and plowed his way through a few Shadowkhan, while Blunk also made a bolt for it.

"You three, take the Larvek and go after the Passling!" Wong ordered his Dark Chi Enforcers. "Cedric and I will take the Shadowkhan and stop the traitor!"

"Sure, thing boss." Ratso said. "But we expect a bonus for riding with the scary caterpillar."

"Go! Now!" Cedric roared, causing the frightened Dark Chi Enforcers to ran after Blunk along with the Larvek which Daolon Wong set loose, while Wong himself followed Cedric along with the Shadowkhan in the direction Vathek ran.

Blunk ran down the street with the Larvek in close pursuit, however, the Passling didn't have far to run as Finn, Ratso, and Chow leaped in front of him with their weapons in hand. Already getting desperate, Blunk threw his backpack at the Dark Chin Enforcers, which Finn sliced away with his weapon, before Blunk ran up to the Larvek and leapt over it's thrust to skate on top of it with his ice-skates. He leapt onto a cloth's line before it snapped, and he used it to swing away.

"I got em! I got em!" Ratso ran backwards to try and catch Blunk only for the Passling to land on top of him feet (and ice-skates) first, knocking Ratso down before Blunk actually skated on the ground with Finn, Chow, and the Larvek after him.

Finn and Chow both threw their respective weapons which spun like large shurikens. Blunk tried to turn his skates to the right down the road, but the weapons followed after him like homing missiles. Blunk saw an abandoned food stand and steered himself in that direction, skating underneath it, allowing the weapons to hit it and stop their pursuit. But Blunk didn't have time to celebrate as the Larvek was already over him.

At the same time, Vathek ran as fast as he could, with the Shadowkhan running and leaping on the rooftops over him. They tried to throw their shurikens at him, but Vathek quickly spotted a cart and used his strength to pick it up and use it as a shield to block the shurikens before throwing it at the Shadowkhan, which they easily avoided as Vathek continued to run.

As he turned one corner, he noticed Cedric slithering after him from behind. Vathek ran into a small alleyway, which Cedric just narrowly squeezed through, but Vathek wasn't done yet. The large blue humanoid spotted a large pile of barrels and tipped them over to block Cedric's path as he was already stuck in pretty hard. But once Vathek made it to the other side, he gave a gasp as he saw Daolon Wong appear in front of him in a plum of dark blue smoke. Wong tried to blast him with dark chi magic, but rather than avoid it, Vathek ducked under the blast and actually ran toward Wong, much to his surprise, before knocking Wong down into a mud puddle before resuming his run.

Meanwhile, Blunk continued to skate across the food in the food stands with the Larvek plowing through the stands after him. However, once the line of stands came to an end, Blunk gave a scream as he saw the Dark Chi Enforcers standing in his way. Fortunately for Blunk, the last stand had a cloth-roof over it, which he leapt onto and bounced off before bouncing onto a cloths-line and bouncing off that toward a building. He climbed up the downspout and onto the roof.

"Huh, you know for a little frog-guy, he's pretty good at parkour." Chow observed.

"Hey, don't let him get away!" Finn stated. "If we mess this up, Phobos will have our hides!"

"No kidding, last time I brought him the wrong tea and he turned me into an ottoman." Ratso said.

The Dark Chi Enforcers saw the Larvek beginning to climb up the wall in pursuit of Blunk, so the three of them clung onto the Larvek's back and rode it as it climbed.

At the same time, Vathek continued to run, doing his best to dodge the dark-chi blasts shot at him by Daolon Wong as he rode on Cedric's shoulders. However, Vathek soon found his path barded by the Shadowkhan. So, he turned around and climbed up the boxes near a fence and leapt over the fence, which was blasted away by Wong's magic as they continued the chase.

It would appear however that Vathek would find sanctuary as he hid behind the door of a nearby blacksmith shop. It would appear that Cedric and Wong didn't notice him as they passed the shop. Vathek noticed the blacksmith inside look at him curiously, Vathek soon brought his finger to his lip, silently telling him to be quiet.

However, the blacksmith gasped as the shadows in the shop moved on their own before they began to take the form of four Shadowkhan. The blacksmith screamed as he ran out of the shop as the Shadowkhan closed in on him. Vathek however wasn't about to go down without a fight as he quickly grabbed a tool with a red-hot end from the burning coals and thrusted it in the chest of the first Shadowkhan to destroy it. He swung it several more times and was able to successfully destroy the remaining three, but the commotion drew the attention of Wong and Cedric as they blasted their way into the building.

"Stay back!" Vathek held out the tool in front of him.

Cedric didn't appear the least bit intimidated. "It will cool."

At the same time, Blunk was already on the roof with the Larvek right behind him. "Nice buggy thingy." He said as he tried to get away, running on the girders, while also avoiding the Dark Chi Enforcers as they leapt after him. He ducked underneath Finn's legs, jumped over Chow to land on Ratso and climb off his shoulders before sliding away down the roof on his skates, while also avoiding the web-shots from the Larvek's lower regions.

"Oh, that is just wrong." Finn shook his head in disgust with his friends at seeing the Larvek's webbing.

"I thought _spiders_ shoot webs." Ratso said. "And doesn't it always come from their butt?"

"Don't even wanna know." Chow commented.

Meanwhile, back in the blacksmith shop, Vathek continued to hold his make-shift weapon in front of the evil duo, however Wong merely shot a dark spell from his scepter that caused the tool to disintegrate in his hands.

The dark chi wizard laughed. "Did you really think an imbecile such as yourself could escape our grasp?"

Cedric shot his tail to ensnare Vathek by the throat and bring him up to his face.

Back up on the rooftops, Blunk continued to skate up and down the slopes of the roofs, unfortunately, he was ensared in the Larvek's webbing and pinned to the roof. Finn, Ratso, and Chow appeared around the squirming Passling as Finn picked him up. "Whoa, hey, will you stop your squirming?!" Finn exclaimed only to yell as the Passling clung to his face, and got the web stuck on him as well.

Ratso and Chow tried to pry Blunk off Finn as the Larvek came in from behind. However, the three Dark Chi Warriors tripped on the Larvek and almost slipped down on the roof, but Ratso instinctively reached out to grab the Larvek, the weight of all four of them ended up pulling the Larvek down with them as all five fell and slid down the roof with a simultaneous scream.

Vathek was thrown against the wall as the evil duo loomed over him. "You won't win!" Vathek stated in defiance. "Caleb and the Guardians will defeat you and return to the princess to the throne!"

"But you are the only one who can tell them the girl's identity." Wong pointed out.

"And you aren't going _anywhere…_" Cedric hissed with an evil smile.

However, before either villain could act, the entire rooftop collapsed as the Larvek, Dark Chi Enforcers, and Blunk all fell into the shop, burying the shocked shapeshifter and wizard underneath the rubble, while also poofing Finn, Ratso, and Chow.

Vathek himself was nothing short of stunned, even more so as Blunk emerged from the pile of rubble. "Blue thing! Follow!" Blunk told him. Not wanting to waste this opportunity, Vathek followed the Passling out of the blacksmith shop, barreling his way through a couple of Shadowkhan that attempted to block his path.

However, with a blast of dark magic to obliterate the rubble; Daolon Wong, Cedric, and the Larvek all rose and were less than pleased with these developments.

Vathek continued to run as he followed Blunk, who followed his own nose to the nearest portal, which happened to be in a nearby alleyway, behind a series of boxes. "Go! Go!" Blunk exclaimed as Vathek pushed away the boxes and the duo ran into the portal just as Wong, Cedric, and the Larvek turned the corner.

* * *

The portal the Earth-side led out near an abandoned train track on a hill just above an open carnival. Blunk and Vathek were the first to emerge from it, but they couldn't stop now.

"This way! This way!" Blunk led Vathek into a nearby forest and would lead him to Heatherfield.

By the time Cedric, Daolon Wong, and the Larvek had emerged from the portal, their quarry had already vanished.

"Their gone!" Wong exclaimed in frustration as he chained the Larvek with dark magic once more to keep it from running wild. Cedric had undergone another dramatic transformation to assume his human disguise of 'Rick Hoffman'. "Chan and the Guardians will know now of the Princess' identity."

"But they don't know of _mine_." Cedric commented. "And that may be all the advantage we may need."

* * *

_Heatherfield, Uncle's Rare Finds_

A knock was heard on the back door, Hay Lin and Jade opened it but looked in surprise at who it was. "Captain Black!" Jade stated

"Hey kids, is Jackie here?" Captain Black asked.

"Yeah, so are Caleb, Grandma, and the other girls." Hay Lin answered.

Blunk suddenly appeared out of the alleyway. "Girls! Chan clan!"

"Sorry Blunk, but you know you can't touch Uncle's stuff." Jade told the Passling.

However, once Vathek stepped out into the open, the group was put on alarm as Captain Black pulled out a pistol, Hay Lin and Jade made martial arts stances. "Monster alert! Monster alert!" Hay Lin exclaimed, prompting Jackie, Will, Irma, Cornelia, and Taranee to run out, Will immediately brandished the Heart and was ready to say the magic words.

"No! No! No! _Good _blue thing!" Blunk quickly said.

"Oh, right. Caleb's friend." Will remembered him now, as did everyone else. "Vortook, right?"

"Vathek." The blue giant corrected.

"Jade?" Captain Black looked at the girl for an explanation.

"Double agent in Phobos' castle. Had to bust in and help him out." Jade gave a quick explanation.

"So uh, how ya been?" Irma asked. "You look uh… blue."

"I must speak with Caleb!" Vathek insisted.

"Is it about the heir?" Jackie asked, to which Vathek nodded, as well as Captain Black in confirmation is well. "Come on inside."

The group went inside where Caleb, Tohru, Uncle, and Yan Lin were as well. Though they were surprised to see the large blue humanoid with them, none was more surprised than Caleb. "Vathek! What are you doing here?"

"Caleb, Phobos' sister has been identified!" Vathek revealed.

"Elyon Brown, correct?" Captain Black asked, completely catching Vathek off guard.

"How could you have possibly…?"

"We did a little digging of our own here on Earth." Will revealed. "Friends in high places and all that."

Captain Black pulled out a photograph taken much earlier of Elyon wearing the Star of Threbe and handed it to Vathek. "Yes, that's her!" He recognized her as well as the artifact she was wearing. "Is that…?"

"The Star of Threbe." Yan Lin confirmed. "It is how Phobos was able to locate the heir."

"I went to Meridian this morning to try and warn you, but I was chased out of the castle before I could find you." Caleb said to his friend.

"So, I take it you have confirmation?" Jackie asked Captain Black.

"Yes." The head of Section 13 pulled out a series of files and laid them on a table for the group to look at. "Elyon Brown, daughter of Thomas and Eleanor Brown."

"Her parents, I know them." Cornelia said. "They're really good people."

"But they're also not from here." Captain Black continued. "There's no family records with either of them, no school records or birth certificates, up until a little more than twelve years ago, neither of them existed."

"What about Elyon?" Taranee asked.

"Her birth certificate is forged as well." Captain Black continued. "It says she was born in Heatherfield Memorial, but the hospital doesn't have any records regarding her birth. Ultimately however, thanks to that hair sample of Phobos you gave me, I've confirmed their DNA. Phobos and Elyon are, in fact, brother and sister."

That hit all the girls, especially Cornelia, real hard. They had suspected it, but to hear confirmation that one of their closest friends was both a princess and Phobos' sister, it was almost too much for Cornelia to process as she almost fell back had Tohru not caught her from behind.

"So, now what do we do?" Will asked.

"Protect her! Obviously!" Cornelia stated. "If Phobos knows she's his sister, he could send those Shadowkhan creeps to grab her and… OW!" She felt her forehead where Uncle just delivered his dope-slap.

"Phobos cannot take Elyon against her will!" Uncle stated. "Elyon not important! Her power as the true heir, _is_."

"Jin is correct." Yan Lin added. "As the true heir, Elyon's power cannot simply be taken. It must be given willingly. If Phobos were to simply kidnap her, she would never trust him, and her powers would be inaccessible to him."

"So, Phobos will try to sway Elyon to his side then?" Tohru assumed.

"Yes." Yan Lin nodded. "We must not underestimate his cunning."

"We also know that Cedric is in disguise here on Earth." Jackie added. "And we know who he's posing as."

"So, we jump Cedric and Elyon is safe. Problem solved." Cornelia said immediately.

"Earth to Cornelia, when do the bad guys ever give up?!" Jade questioned. "Phobos and his cronies will just send someone else to try and turn Elyon to the dark side!"

"Jade has a point. Cedric isn't the only shapeshifter in Meridian." Caleb said. "Phobos could employ a number of them and we'd never know."

Hay Lin gasped. "What if her new boyfriend is also a shapeshifter!?"

"Which is why Elyon must take this." Uncle took out a vile of a green liquid. "Special chi-spell, once she drinks this, all those of ill-intent will be incapable of touching Elyon."

"And how exactly do we get her to drink a magic spell?" Irma questioned sarcastically.

"Just mix it with water or soda." Tohru replied. "She'll never know."

"So where is Elyon now?" Captain Black asked.

"She and her boyfriend are at the carnival right now." Will answered.

"Carnival? That's where portal!" Blunk revealed, much to everyone's surprise.

"Alright, here's the plan." Jackie began. "Will, take the girls and Caleb to close the portal and meet Elyon at the carnival. Give her the spell and watch her carefully. Tohru, you and Uncle go with them just in case anything from Meridian came through."

"Got it." Will nodded.

"No problem." Jade gave a thumbs up.

"Understood." Tohru nodded as well.

"What are you going to do?" Taranee asked Jackie.

"I'm going to have a little 'chat' with Cedric." The martial artist answered as he knew exactly where to find him.

"Not by yourself you're not old friend." Captain Black said with crossed arms and a smirk.

"I'm coming as well. I myself have a few choice words I'd like to give to that snake." Yan Lin offered.

"I will come as well." Vathek offered.

"I am sorry, but you must stay." Uncle told the large blue humanoid.

"I cannot!" Vathek stated. "After years of searching, we've found the true heir to the throne and Phobos will do anything to get his hands on her! I cannot just… OW!" Vathek felt his forehead where Uncle had just dope-slapped him.

"You stay here! Someone must watch the shop!"

Vathek looked nothing short of stunned. "Don't bother arguing with him Vathek, trust me you'll never win." Caleb sighed and told his friend.

* * *

The carnival was in full-swing, rides and games everywhere, even clowns wearing long stilt-legs paraded through the streets. Elyon appeared to be waiting by herself when her date, Bryan, joined her with a handful of tickets in his hand.

"Twenty tickets, should be good for about an hour." Bryan said. "Race ya to the roller coaster!" The two laughed as they ran toward the ride.

Meanwhile, on the hill just above the carnival, Will had used the Heart of Kandrakar to close the portal as she, Jade, Irma, Cornelia, Tohru, Taranee, Uncle, Hay Lin, Caleb, and Blunk.

"Okay, portal is now closed." Jade commented. "Mission accomplished."

"Not yet." Will said as the group looked down at the carnival below. "It was open for too long, something else might have gotten through."

"Anyone see Elyon?" Cornelia asked as they tried to find her.

Hay Lin saw her standing in line for the roller coaster with her date. "She's right there, with Bryan!"

"Boy look shifty." Blunk commented upon seeing the kid.

"Look in a mirror lately?" Jade's eyelids lowered.

"Will, why not just touch him with the crystal and get it over with?" Cornelia asked the red head.

"Because I can't reveal a beast in his true form in front of in front of a thousand people." Will stated.

"We also don't know for certain that he's a shapeshifter." Tohru commented. "He could just be a normal person."

"So how can we tell the difference?" Irma asked.

"With the spell." Uncle took out the vial containing the chi-spell. "If boy touches Elyon, he is normal. If he cannot, then he is evil beast."

"So, all we have to do is get Elyon to drink it, no problem." Taranee said.

Uncle handed Cornelia the spell as she took out a bottle of purple soda. "Grape soda, it's her favorite." She said as she opened the bottle and poured the liquid spell into the soda. It flashed green briefly before dissolving.

"Alright, here's the plan." Will said. "If he's not a beast; Cornelia, Jade, Caleb and I will stay close with Elyon and make it look like we're hanging out. Hay Lin, Taranee, Irma, you guys keep an eye on things around the carnival. Just because he's not a shapeshifter doesn't mean there _aren't_ any bad guys around."

"Sensei, Blunk, and I will stay up here, just in case we see anything from this height." Tohru said as even Uncle nodded in agreement.

"Good plan." The elder chi-wizard said.

"And if he _is _a beast?" Caleb questioned.

"Then we pull him to the side and kick his butt!" Jade stated as she delivered an airborne kick for emphasis.

"We'll work out the details later, let's go." Will said as the girls and Caleb all ran down the hill, leaving Uncle, Tohru, and Blunk to watch over things from their end.

"Hey Elyon!" She heard her name being called as she turned around to see some of her friends greeting her.

"Oh, hey guys." Elyon greeted and then began to introduce them to her new boyfriend. "Cornelia, Will, Jade, Caleb, this is Bryan."

"Nice to meet ya." Bryan greeted.

"Yeah you to." Will said, acting casual.

"Oh, uh Elyon, thirsty?" Cornelia offered her the soda bottle that also contained the chi-spell mixed into it.

"Grape soda! It's my favorite! Thank you!" Elyon took it without hesitation and drank it, along with the chi-spell, with no issue at all. However, she did notice something in it. "Tastes a little… funny."

"Eh, probably hasn't been reirrigated in a while. But it should still be good." Cornelia said.

"Thanks anyway." Elyon smiled, nonetheless. "We're gonna check out the bumper cars! Come on!" She grabbed Bryan's hand and ran off in the direction of the cars.

The four of them saw how Elyon could touch Bryan's hand and there was nothing odd from that. "See that?" Jade told them. "She touched him."

"So, he's not an evil beast." Will concluded.

"That's a relief." Cornelia said with a relieved smile.

"But that doesn't mean she's out of danger. Keep an eye out." Caleb told the group as they followed Elyon and Brian.

Meanwhile, on the other side of a booth, Hay Lin had observed everything as she reported to Irma and Taranee who acted casual to avoid drawing attention. "She drank the spell and touched his hand. Bryan is not evil."

"Great, so now we only have to worry about the thousand other people around here that might be a shapeshifter." Irma said in sarcastic humor.

"You heard what Miss Lin and Uncle said." Taranee commented. "The bad guys can't just grab Elyon, so they can't exactly make a move here."

"Speaking of which, I wonder how Grandma and Jackie are doing. Think they can handle Cedric alone?" Hay Lin asked

"Well considering they're being backed up by Section 13, I don't think we have anything to worry about." Taranee said.

* * *

Cedric, still in his human disguise as 'Rick Hoffman' was in the backroom of the bookstore that served as his cover as he reported to the spectral image of Phobos, completely unaware that Jackie Chan had entered the bookstore and was hanging back by a bookshelf near the semi-open door to the backroom.

"My prince, we were unable to capture Vathek, and he has made it to Earth along with the Passling." Cedric reported.

Phobos looked more than a little frustrated. "Which would mean Chan and the Guardians now likely know of my sister's identity as well."

"No need to worry, my prince." Cedric assured. "They are unaware of _my_ identity, and I have won Elyon's trust. I may have to step a little more carefully, but I will secure her for you."

"And what of Wong?" Phobos questioned.

"Keeping a close watch over the princess, as we speak." Cedric said, causing Jackie's eyes to widen slightly while also keeping quiet.

"Good. Do not make any rash actions and await my next command." Phobos instructed before his spectral image vanished and Cedric stood up to walk out of the backroom.

"Finished speaking to your master?" Jackie questioned, revealing himself.

Cedric's eyes widened, while keeping his back turned, but put on a friendly smile as he turned around. "Ah, Mr. Jackie Chan, I didn't hear you come in."

"That's rather funny." Jackie said. "I don't recall the two of us meeting before, yet you know my name."

"Oh, well your niece speaks rather highly of you." Cedric tried to maintain his façade. However, Jackie wasn't buying it as he glanced behind Cedric to the semi-open door leading to the backroom. Jackie tried to rush past Cedric and get inside, but he quickly kicked the door back to slam it shut, causing Jackie's knuckles to impact the door hard.

Jackie winced as he waved the pain from his knuckles before turning to face the shapeshifter in disguise. "No more games! I know who you are, _Lord Cedric_!"

Cedric gave an audible gasp as his own eyes widened. A scowl soon formed on his face as he casually took off his glasses. "For you to discover my identity so quickly, I admit that I gravely underestimated you Chan." His eyes turned into slits as he underwent the dramatic transformation to reveal his massive humanoid-snake form, which loomed over Jackie who made a Kung Fu stance, ready to face him. "A mistake I will not make twice!"

Cedric roared as he lunged a punch at Jackie, who backflipped to avoid it as it crashed through the floor. Jackie flipped and landed at the top of a large bookshelf, which he tipped over by placing his hands on the celling while pushing his feet to tip the self over Cedric, causing all the books to pile on top of him. However, as Jackie landed on the ground, Cedric emerged from the pile with a roar before swinging his tail at Jackie, which he flipped to avoid.

As Jackie flipped backwards toward another shelf, he quickly began to grab several books and threw them at Cedric. While this would normally be considered a desperate act, Jackie threw with incredible force, and amazing accuracy, to hit Cedric repeatedly in the face, disorienting him as Jackie continued to throw, some of the pages cut Cedric's face slightly as blood began to ooze.

"Paper cut. It's the worst, isn't it?" Jackie said with a grin.

Cedric hissed before swinging his tail to smash Jackie's head in, though Jackie was able to avoid the devastating strike, he was put on the defensive as Cedric tried to deliver more devastating punches, while also tearing up the entire bookstore as they continued to fight. Jackie leapt over a table and quickly flipped it to act as a makeshift shield to block Cedric's next punch. Though the humanoid snake was able to shatter it, it left him open for Jackie to leap into the air and deliver a punch to Cedric's face, knocking the shapeshifter down to the ground. Jackie however winced as he waved the pain off his knuckles. However, this also left him open for Cedric to smack him in the back with his tail and send him crashing into the remains of one bookshelf.

Jackie pushed some of the rubble out of the way, only to look in surprise as Cedric loomed over him, raising both his fists with the intent of crushing him, only for Cedric to howl in pain as he felt stinging chi-blasts from behind. The one responsible was none other than Yan Lin holding a blowfish in her hand. With Cedric momentarily distracted, Jackie leapt to deliver a flying kick to Cedric's face and send him crashing through several more ruined bookshelves before Jackie landed by Yan Lin's side.

"Miss Lin, you can use chi-magic?" Jackie asked in surprise.

"Only the basic-stun spell." Yan Lin commented. "When your ex is a chi-wizard, you tend to pick up a few tricks."

However, their banter was interrupted as Cedric emerged from the rubble once more with a powerful roar. Jackie quickly picked up the elderly woman and leapt out of the bookstore and onto the street. Cedric wasn't too far behind, breaking through the glass windows and doors to get outside. However, Cedric soon came to a halt as the entire area was surrounded by at least two dozen Section 13 agents in SWAT uniforms, along with a couple high-tech vans which they used to transport themselves in. The large humanoid snake was covered with multiple laser-targets as each agent aimed a rifle at him.

Captain Black walked up without even a hint of fear in his eyes. "Mr. Hoffman, you're under arrest."

Cedric's eyes narrowed. "Am I?"

Right as he said that, multiple shadows from around the block all began to move on their own along the ground and even along the side of the building before they surrounded all the agents of Section 13, along with Jackie and Yan Lin. The shadows took the shape of more than two dozen familiar ninja-minions.

"Shadowkhan!" Jackie exclaimed in surprise.

"Attack!" Cedric ordered the Shadowkhan as they leapt at the agents, who immediately opened fire with their guns. Though bullets would cause a few of the Shadowkhan to poof away, several proved too fast for even gun fire as they dealt with the agents with hand-to-hand combat. Captain Black, Jackie, and Yan Lin came together to knock back the Shadowkhan with fists, guns, or chi-blasts, but Jackie saw Cedric using this as his opportunity to escape as he slithered into an alleyway.

"He's getting away!" Jackie stated.

"Go after him! We got this!" Captain Black stated as he shot one Shadowkhan, with Yan Lin backing him up with stun-blasts of her own.

Jackie nodded in understanding as he ran in pursuit of Cedric in the alleyway. Seeing the snake-man already making considerable distance, Jackie ran up the wall toward a nearby fire-escape, before swinging on the metal ladder to give him a boost as he landed a flying kick to Cedric's back and knock him down.

But Cedric wasn't done yet as he quickly grabbed a dumpster and threw it at Jackie, who could just barely avoid it as he rolled out of the way. However, this gave Cedric an opening to transform back into his humanoid appearance, where he quickly lifted a manhole cover, which he threw at Jackie, who ducked to avoid it, while also giving Cedric a chance to jump into the sewer below.

Jackie quickly ran to the exposed manhole and looked down to see Cedric completely vanish. The martial artist gave a disappointed sigh as he pulled himself back up. Cedric had managed to get away, but there was something more important that he had to worry about. Daolon Wong was near Elyon right now, as were all the girls along with Uncle, Tohru, Caleb. Jackie quickly took out his cellphone and sent a mass-text to the group to let them know.

* * *

Just outside the carnival; Tohru looked at the text he got on his own cellphone. "I just got a message form Jackie." He said, getting Blunk and Uncle's attention. "Cedric was able to escape, and Daolon Wong is somewhere in the carnival."

"Aiya!" Uncle exclaimed. "Girls cannot transform into so many people! But evil has no such regards!"

"Blunk see bad wizard!" Blunk exclaimed, getting Tohru and Uncle's attention as they looked down to see Daolon Wong sneaking into the backdoor of the haunted house attraction.

"Blunk, go get the girls, but tell Caleb to stay with Elyon." Tohru told the Passling. "We can't risk this being a set-up." He said as he and Uncle ran toward the haunted house attraction with Blunk going off in a separate direction.

Uncle and Tohru ran into the haunted house attraction through the backdoor, finding themselves in a graveyard-like setting as both of them appeared on guard. "Be ready Tohru, the Forces of Darkness could descend upon us at any moment."

They both heard a familiar chuckle belonging to Finn, who leapt down from the ceiling with Ratso and Chow. "Consider yourselves descended upon, grams." And it wasn't just the Dark Chi Enforcers either, right behind them, the giant centipede monster known as the Larvek roared as it appeared behind the elder chi-wizard and his apprentice.

* * *

_Uncle's Rare Finds_

Meanwhile, Vathek sat alone on the floor of the Chan's family shop. With nothing else to do, the large blue humanoid decided to skim through Uncle's spell books, however, he did find some things that he found a bit interesting.

"Chi spells? Hmmm." Vathek rubbed his finger under his chin, quite intrigued as he continued to read.

* * *

_Carnival _

As Taranee, Hay Lin, and Irma kept their distance but watched over Elyon and Bryan very carefully; Jade and Caleb hung around closer toward the pair, pretending to hang out. All the while, Cornelia had pulled Will back behind a stand to talk with her in private.

"Why are we still following her when she's already drank that chi-spell thing?!" Cornelia questioned.

"In case you've forgotten Cornelia, Phobos has his own wizard to. Who, by the way, we just found it is somewhere here in this park!" Will pointed out as she showed her the mass-text she got from Jackie.

"Then let's track _him _down and not Elyon!" Cornelia argued. "No more bad guys, no more lying to our friend!"

"What do you think we've been trying to do this entire time?!" Will argued back. "We're not ready to beat them yet!"

"Oh, I'm so sorry I disagree with you Ms. Sealer-of-the-portals!" Cornelia exclaimed.

"Look, I like Elyon to, but…" Before Will could voice her argument, they heard a familiar scream and saw Blunk running toward them. "Blunk, we told you to stay with Uncle and Tohru!"

"Found bad wizard!" Blunk stated as he pointed to the haunted house. "Big man tell Blunk to get all girls!"

* * *

Multiple people screamed as they tried to run out of the haunted house from the roaring Larvek, whom Tohru was directly challenging. Meanwhile, Uncle faced off with the Dark Chi Enforcers.

"You want a piece of Uncle?!" He exclaimed as he drew a blowfish and a dried lizard, only for the Dark Chi Enforcers to draw their much larger weapons in response, much to Uncle's comic surprise. At the same time, the Larvek shot some webbing out of its chest at Tohru and tried to yank him in, despite the large sumo holding his ground.

* * *

"So, something _did _come through the portal!" Caleb stated.

"Uh, duh! That's kinda what Uncle Jackie just texted us about!" Jade reminded as she showed her mass text.

"Old man say Caleb stay with Elyon." Blunk told Caleb.

"I don't take orders from a Passling."

"The 'order' came from the same old man who'll probably smack you upside the head again for disobeying him." Irma reminded.

"Seriously Caleb, you have to stay with Elyon. We'll handle this." Cornelia told him.

"Right, got it." Caleb nodded as he walked off to find the girl, leaving the six girls as Will took out the Heart of Kandrakar.

"**Guardians Unite!"**

* * *

Back inside the haunted house, both Uncle and Tohru were completely ensared by the Larvek's web as the creature itself, as well as the Dark Chi Enforcers stood over them.

"Sorry Tohru." Ratso apologized. "But we got our orders."

"For what it's worth though, we really did like ya. Even after you became a good guy." Chow commented.

"Aren't I lucky?" Tohru said sarcastically.

Fortunately for them, salvation came in the form of Guardians, along with Jade, whom Taranee carried, as they busted in through the windows above to face the Dark Chi Enforcers and Larvek.

"Anybody call for a helping order of J-WITCH?!" Jade called excitedly.

"I got the bug!" Will stated. "Taranee, Jade, help Tohru and Uncle! Everyone else, take down the dark chi stooges!" She flew directly at the Larvek as everyone else scattered around the area. Will delivered a flying kick to the monster's face to get its attention as it roared and crawled after her as she flew away.

Hay Lin, Irma, and Cornelia flew directly at Finn, Ratso, and Chow as Hay Lin shot a powerful gust of wind from her mouth to literally blow away all three as the three girls landed and took Kung Fu stances. The Dark Chi Enforcers were quick to get back up as they ran and charged the girls.

Meanwhile, Taranee had set Jade down as she tried to pry the webbing off Uncle and Tohru. "Okay, since when do caterpillars shoot web? I thought that was for spiders!" Jade stated

"I'm not even gonna question it." Taranee said as she used her fire to burn it away while also being careful not to burn Uncle and Tohru by accident.

"Less talk, more fire." Uncle stated as Jade and Taranee were successful in freeing the elder chi-wizard and his apprentice.

* * *

Back outside, Elyon and Bryan continued to wonder the carnival as Caleb kept a close watch over her, while also keeping his distance. However, he didn't appear to notice someone else watching Elyon from the shadows underneath a ride.

'_So, this is the true heir to Meridian's throne.'_ Daolon Wong thought to himself as he 'scanned' her, so-to-speak, with his magic scepter and he could practically see the magic energy surging off her. _'So much power…' _He sneered with a grin. _'Equal to that of the Heart of Kandrakar! And soon, it will be mine! But first, she appears to still have a series of anchors to this world.' _He noted upon observing Bryan. _'It is time to begin severing those anchors.' _

With a wave of his scepter, Daolon Wong had created a small booth which appeared to be something that of a fortune teller, complete with a crystal ball. Daolon Wong himself had donned a hood that completely masked his face.

Elyon noticed the new stand and actually looked excited. "Oh wow, a fortune teller! Let's go check it out!" She grabbed Bryan's hand as they ran toward it. Caleb still kept watch over the two, but he didn't seem to notice this was another trick from the dark chi wizard.

"Come young ones, look into this crystal ball, so that you may gaze upon your future." The disguised Wong said as he began to recite his dark magic chant, which went unnoticed by the two kids in front of them. Elyon looked excited, while Bryan actually looked nervous. As dark clouds formed in the crystal ball, Elyon looked and saw she was a princess. However, this was a mere illusion spell Wong was conjuring as his chant was actually focused on Bryan, who's eyes began to glow a faint blue.

* * *

Back in the haunted house, Will continued to fly and avoid the clumps of webbing the Larvek continued to shoot at her. However, one was able to successfully hit her, sending her crashing and sticking to the ground, keeping her arms stuck to her body as she struggled in the stinky substance.

The Larvek loomed over and lunged down at her with the intent of devouring her alive, fortunately salvation came in the form of Tohru who had appeared just in time to hold the massive insect back before delivering a powerful punch to its face to knock it back. It reeled back but snarled at Tohru, but before it could attack again, the Larvek roared in pain as Uncle blasted with multiple stun-spells from his blowfish and dried lizard.

As Uncle kept the Larvek distracted, Tohru was able to pry the webbing off of Will and free her. "Thanks, Tohru."

"Your welcome." Tohru smiled before they both turned to charge back at the Larvek and provide Uncle with some support.

Irma shot her hands forward to send a gust of water at Chow, who spun his staff like a helicopter-blade, acting as a makeshift shield to block the blasts of water before charging at Irma, swinging his staff at her, which she just barely avoided before shooting up into the air, while Chow jumped after her.

"Hey shades! Head's up!" Jade tried to deliver a flying kick to Chow, but he was actually able to catch Jade by the foot before throwing her at Irma, who flew in to catch Jade, but this left her open for Chow to strike her and Jade with his staff and knock them both down.

At the same time, Taranee threw several fire-balls at Finn who was able to block and slice through each of them with his bladed weapon before he threw it at Taranee like a large shuriken, which she ducked to avoid before flying into the air, unfortunately the weapon appeared to be tracking her like a homing missile, which Taranee tried to knock away with a stream of fire form her palms. The fire just barley slowed it down as it managed to hit Taranee with explosive results and send her crashing to the ground. However, she was able to roll away from a flying kick from Finn before he chased after her.

Hay Lin, meanwhile, flew into the air to avoid what would have been a devastating hammer-strike from Ratso. He then threw his weapon at her and, much like Finn's weapon, the hammer tracked Hay Lin no matter which way she flew. However, she got an idea as she flew down, straight back towards Ratso and over him. Ratso gave a gasp as he saw his own hammer coming after him, however we able to duck and avoid it just in time as it crashed through the wall.

"Whoa, that was close." Ratso said as he rubbed his forehead.

Cornelia saw this as her opportunity, using some minor control over wood, she telekinetically pried the wooden boards from the tracks and sent them at Ratso. However, Ratso retrieved his hammer again to bash through each wooden board before leaping into the air and bring the hammer down onto the ground to blast both Cornelia and Hay Lin back.

Soon; the five Guardians, along with Jade, Uncle, and Tohru circled up as the Larvek came in from one direction, with the Dark Chi Enforcers in the other.

"We're surrounded!" Will exclaimed.

"Got that right." Finn said. "I see a hospital in your guys' future."

Suddenly however, a large van came bursting in through the wall before the back opened to reveal Captain Black, along with multiple armed Section 13 agents running out, each armed to the teeth.

"And I see prison stripes in _your _future!" Captain Black stated. "Aim for the creepy crawly!" He ordered his men as they immediately opened fire onto the Larvek, filling it full of holes, but it wasn't enough to kill it as it painfully and angrily roared at them before attacking the agents, who scattered along with Captain Black.

"Whoa, who called in the cavalry!?" Jade exclaimed as all the heroes were more than a little stunned.

"I did!" Jackie stated as he ran onto the scene. "Girls, you deal with the Enforcers. Uncle, Tohru, we will assist in Captain Black against that bug monster."

"Got it." Will said as they all nodded and split off.

The Dark Chi Enforcers were so caught up in the surprise arrival by Section 13, they failed to notice the Guardians flying directly at them until it was too late. Hay Lin and Irma combined their water and wind powers for a powerful storm of icicles which blasted and impaled Ratso, poofing him, while forcing Chow and Finn to scatter.

Chow was blasted away by a ball of fire from Taranee that likewise poofed him, while Will and Cornelia grabbed Finn by the arms and threw him directly at Jade who was already leaping at him with another flying kick attack, that was enough to poof him as well.

At the same time, the agents in Section 13 continued to shoot at the Larvek, who retaliated with more blasts of webbing to ensnare more than half of them. Although the creature already looked gravely weakened from all the oozing bullet holes it was now covered in. Captain Black however appeared cornered by the creature, fortunately Tohru quickly came in from behind to grab the creature by its tail and, with his own incredible strength, pull and swing the Larvek right into the wall. It was then pelted once more by several chi-blasts from Uncle before it reared its head straight up for a howl of pain before Jackie leapt up to deal the finishing blow with a punch right into its right eye.

This was enough to kill the Larvek as its lifeless body now fell to the ground. Jackie pulled out his hand which was now covered in bug-eye goo. Which he tried to wave off with disgust. "I don't suppose Section 13 has a disinfectant for massive magic bugs." Jackie said for a just a little bit of humor.

Captain Black chuckled. "Pretty sure your Uncle has one though." He said with a smile, putting a hand on his friend's shoulder as everyone else worked to free the Section 13 agents from their sticky predicaments.

* * *

Meanwhile, back outside, after paying a visit to that odd fortune teller, Elyon and Bryan continued to walk through the streets. Jackie, Will, Jade, Irma, Tohru, Cornelia, Hay Lin, Taranee, and Uncle had just arrived when they met up with Caleb.

"So, do you want to do anything tomorrow night?" Elyon asked Bryan.

"Elyon, your very nice but…" Bryan began, trying to sound sincere. "You just got too many crazy friends… I'm sorry." He walked away, apparently breaking up with her.

"Hey, how's it going?" Hay Lin walked up to try and speak with Elyon, but she said nothing as she ran away, crying.

But while the girl did indeed cry, from the shadows, Daolon Wong snickered evilly as he waved his scepter to vanish into a puff of dark blue smoke.

* * *

Captain Black drove his van while Guardians, Chan Clan, Caleb, Blunk, and Yan Lin all talked about their current predicament.

"So Cedric escaped." Caleb said in a grim tone. "Well, can't say I'm surprised."

"Even if he makes it back to Meridian, he won't cause trouble here again." Captain Black said. "I have Section 13 agents coming the city. If they spot his face, human or otherwise, they'll notify me immediately."

"Well that solves one problem. But what about Elyon?" Tohru asked.

"If she's in danger, how can we know that and not tell her?" Cornelia questioned.

"What do we tell her?" Jade asked. "Hey Elyon, how are you doing? Oh, did you know that you happened to be some kind of magic princess, and you have an evil older brother that wants to kidnap and brainwash you?"

"Well, no not like that!" Cornelia said. "But we should at least tell her about us!"

"I'm with Cornelia." Irma agreed.

"If we tell her about all this, she'll think we're crazy!" Taranee contradicted.

"Yeah, I gotta go with Taranee on this." Hay Lin agreed with the bespectacled girl.

"Not if we show her our magic powers and prove that it's all real." Cornelia argued.

"No, we can't tell her." Will said. "Even if she does believe us, she'll freak out and panic. How does that help her?"

"Come on Jackie, you're with me on this, right?" Cornelia pleaded with the older man, almost desperately.

Jackie sighed. "I agree with Will." The blonde looked shocked, almost betrayed by this. "Not everyone is capable of accepting such impacting news, especially with their life in danger."

"Jackie is right." Even Yan Lin agreed. "Elyon will find out eventually, but now isn't the time."

Cornelia simply scowled as she looked away with crossed arms. "Fine."

"Besides, now she's protected by a chi-spell, right?" Jade reminded. "So, problem solved."

"Problem _not _solved!" Uncle stated. "Elyon is protected right now. But Forces of Darkness still loom over her like a storm cloud. We must be very cautious going forward."

"Well, at least this gives us some time to find a more permanent solution." Caleb said as the van came to a halt in front of Uncle's Rare Finds. The group soon entered the shop but looked in minor surprise at what they saw inside.

Vathek was hopping on one foot, shaking a blowfish in one hand, while holding a spell book in the other and reading a spell aloud. "_Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao._ _Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao…." _Vathek's eyes suddenly widened as he was engulfed in a bright flash. The entire group of heroes looked nothing short of stunned to see Vathek's clothes fallen over his new form as a blue frog.

"Ribbit."

"Ooh, big blue thing Passling to?" Blunk asked in surprise as Jade, Uncle, Tohru, Captain Black and even Jade face-palmed while Yan Lin simply sighed as Caleb, and the other girls were merely stunned.

* * *

Elyon didn't feel like going home to her parents. Instead, she went to the bookstore where someone she truly trusted worked. However, her teary eyes widened in shock as she saw the bookstore in ruins with police tape and officers around it on the radio.

"What in…?"

"Elyon, over here."

The girl turned around to an alleyway around the corner to see Cedric, in his human disguise, waving for her to follow him, which she did.

"I'm sorry we had to meet under such… stressful circumstances." Cedric tried to sound sincere as they were deep in the alleyway.

"Cedric what… what the heck happened to your store?!" Elyon exclaimed. "Looks like a bomb went off in there!"

"That's more-or-less what happened." Cedric lied. "I had left a kettle of tea on and there was a gas leak so…"

"Oh, I am so sorry!" Elyon said sincerely, buying Cedric's lies.

"It's nothing to worry about, thankfully nobody was hurt." Cedric replied.

"Well, I was hoping I could talk to you, but… you seem to be having problems of your own so I won't bother you." Elyon was about to walk away.

"If you'd like, we could talk at my home. It's not far from…" However, once Cedric put his hand on her shoulder, a spark of green energy shot into his hand, causing him to hiss in pain as he pulled his hand away.

"Cedric, are you okay?" Elyon asked with concern.

"Yes… I'm fine. Just a bit of static, is all." Cedric brushed off, hiding his smoking hand behind his back. "Listen Elyon, I hate to leave you, but there is something urgent I must attend to, my insurance payments for what has happened to my store. But I assure you that I will reach out the second I am available."

"Okay, I'd like that." Elyon smiled as she turned around to walk away.

Once she was gone however, a scowl appeared on Cedric's face as he looked to his hand to see some burn marks. _'A spell? Most likely that old wizard. This is going to be more difficult than I thought. But… not impossible.' _

**Done. **

**So, good news. Elyon is protected by a chi-spell to prevent the bad guys from touching her, for the moment at least. And Cedric has been ousted by Jackie Chan and Section 13. **

**Bad news however, Daolon Wong and Cedric are not willing to give up. Cedric still has Elyon's trust, and Wong has already begun to create a rift between Elyon and her friends. He even hypnotized Bryan to get him to break up with Elyon (total dick move, but very in-character for the dark chi wizard). **

**So, what's going to happen next? How can our heroes protect Elyon while also keeping her in the dark at the same time? Find out next time on J-WITCH!**


	16. Stop the Presses

**Hi everyone, thanks for your patience. So, last where we left off, Elyon is now protected by Uncle's Chi-Spell, and the Guardians and Jackie have exposed Cedric. However, that doesn't mean Elyon is out of danger as this chapter will now prove. So, with that being said, let us begin. **

**Stop the Presses**

"How could they have discovered you?!" Phobos exclaimed to Cedric as he was in his human form and kneeled to his prince, with Daolon Wong by his side.

"I've underestimated not only Jackie Chan, but the forces of Earth as well." Cedric said as he kept his head bowed. "Even without magic, they are formidable. But, while I have successfully captured the princess' trust, I'm afraid that I am unable to touch her."

"What do you mean?" Phobos narrowed his rage-filled eyes at the shapeshifter who revealed his hand to show some minor burn marks.

"When I attempted to touch young Elyon, some magic force prevented me from doing so." Cedric revealed.

Daolon Wong walked over to inspect Cedric's hand as he waved his scepter, enabling him to see a faint green vapor emanating from the burn marks. "A chi-spell, no doubt the wizard's handy work."

"This is unacceptable!" Phobos exclaimed as he stood by an odd device that had a large glass orb at the top of a small tree-like object, with three smaller orbs around it. "In order for me to acquire my sister's power, I need to perform the Ceremony of Amalgamation! Which I am unable to do if she cannot be touched!"

"I can acquire two of the three items without directly touching the princess herself." Wong proposed. "And I shall get to work on a counter-spell that will enable us to touch her."

"Do what you will, but know this Daolon Wong; if you fail me, there will be dire consequences!" Phobos warned.

* * *

_Earth – Sheffield Institute _

"Is our school paper totally lame?" Elyon asked as she stood in the hallway with Jade, Will, Cornelia, Alchemy, Irma, Taranee, and Hay Lin.

"What's more than totally?" Irma questioned sarcastically.

"How about 'I'd rather listen to Uncle's ramblings than read this'?" Jade said.

"'Teacher parks too close to fire hydrant, almost.'" Will read one section aloud for emphasis and was less than impressed.

"'Wheat roles in the cafeteria, the untold story.'" Hay Lin also read aloud.

"And the photos!" Taranee criticized. "Look at this picture of a wheat role!"

"Um, I think that's a teacher. Mr. Collins, maybe?" Alchemy said, which only further illustrated the lackluster in the rather boring school newspaper.

Taranee suddenly got an idea. "Hey guys, why don't we see if we can help them out on the paper?"

Jade scoffed. "I'd rather be eaten alive by demons."

"You got some crazy imagination Jade." Elyon pointed out as most of the girls winced slightly, knowing it wasn't just Jade's imagination talking.

"Speaking of pictures, how about the ones with me?" Cornelia asked.

"There aren't any." Alchemy said.

"Exactly. They call this a paper?" Cornelia purposely dropped the paper on the floor.

Jade however noticed Mr. Collins coming around the corner. "Guys, incoming teacher!" She warned as the group picked up the papers and tried to act innocent and less critical.

"H… Hey Mr. Collins!" Will greeted. "Nice newspaper!"

"You really think so? I'm the staff supervisor, ya know?" He revealed, as all eight girls looked at the bottom of the paper and only just realized now that he was as his name was typed at the bottom.

Hay Lin tried to come up with a complement. "Oh, we love it at the restaurant for wrapping fish guts!" The other girls winced, including Hay Lin herself who realized what she just said.

However, Collins didn't appear offended and didn't seem all that surprised either. "I had only five students on it, and the editor quit so we're down to four. I don't suppose any of you would…" However, nearly all the girls vanished from sight, all except for Taranee who was eagerly raising her hand, volunteering. Irma had attempted to escape with the other girls but had tripped over her own books.

"Great!" Collins exclaimed with a smile. "Taranee and Irma, consider yourselves the paper's new editors!" He announced as Martin walked onto the scene.

"Sweet!" Taranee smiled.

Irma however sulked as she sat on the floor. "Evenings and weekends at school. Okay, could it get any worse?"

"Greetings madam boss!" Martin walked up to her with a smile. "Now we can be together _all _the time!"

* * *

"Journalism's more than just what happened, it's _why_." Taranee said to the staff of the school paper consisting of Irma, Martin, Uriah, along with Bess and Courtney Grumper, and some other random girl. "Isn't getting to the truth why we joined the school paper?"

"We wanted to write about clothes." Bess said, referring to herself and her sister.

"I got detention." Uriah said, completely uninterested in what Taranee was saying. "It was this or clean toilets."

"Is that job still open?" Irma asked.

"We need to put out a paper that matters!" Taranee continued. "No more silly things about wheat rolls. Real stories that really matter!"

"Yes!" Martin exclaimed in full agreement.

"Research! Facts checking!" Taranee continued.

"I hear you, sister!" Martin stated with a wide grin and salute.

"Let's get to the truth people!" Taranee finished.

"Halleluiah! I'll do it!" Martin already ran out with his camera.

Irma sulked further into her chair. "Newsflash: I hate my life."

* * *

Meanwhile, as the students were all in class, a pair of shadows moved along the floor in the hallway and came to a stop near a certain locker. The shadows morphed and shifted to reveal two Shadowkhan who easily broke the lock off the locker to acquire some of its contents.

* * *

Elyon saw that her locker door had been broken and the oddest of things had been taken. "Now who would break into _my _locker, and then just take my hairbrush and math test I made a perfect score on?"

Will, Jade, Cornelia, and Hay Lin heard what she said as they each gasped. Cornelia put a hand on Will's shoulder and spoke in a tone that Elyon wouldn't hear.

"It's gotta be Phobos, we have to warn her!"

"We're not even sure this has anything to do with him." Will replied.

"Let's just talk with Jackie when we school's out." Jade suggested.

"Yeah, good idea." Hay Lin agreed, while Cornelia looked rather unsure as she glanced at Elyon who continued to look oddly at her broken locker.

* * *

_Meridian – Phobos' Castle _

The two Shadowkhan Daolon Wong had sent were on their knees as they each presented to Wong and Phobos the stolen hairbrush and math test.

"My prince, I have acquired representations of Elyon's mind and body." Wong showed the dark prince.

"Excellent." Phobos smirked as he took the two items and placed them in two of the smaller orbs within the device. "And her spirit? I trust you have a counter-spell in place so that you or Cedric can touch her?"

"That has proven to be more… difficult than I anticipated." Daolon Wong explained as Phobos clenched his fists in anger. "Just from the remnants of the good chi on Cedric's wound, I can tell that the spell placed on the princess is more complexed than I thought. Without knowing the contents of the spell, I cannot make a proper counter-spell. Of course, the only one who knows the contents of the spell is the wizard who cast it."

"Then find that wizard and bring him here!" Phobos ordered. "I will force the information out of him myself if I have to!"

* * *

_Earth – Silver Dragon _

Jade, Will, Cornelia, and Hay Lin met with Jackie, Uncle, Caleb, Tohru, and Yan Lin at the Silver Dragon as the girls told them what had happened at the school, and it seemed that Yan Lin knew exactly what it meant.

"It is beginning." Yan Lin said. "Phobos is preparing for the Ceremony of the Amalgamation."

"What is that?" Jackie asked.

"It is a very potent type of magic that will further attract Elyon to Meridian." Yan Lin explained. "Hair for body, perfect test for her mind; spirit is hardest, he must capture her breath."

"If one of his creatures even _thinks _he's getting that close to her… just let em try!" Caleb performed a roundhouse kick for emphasis, only to accidentally break a lamp with his kick.

"Smooth move, rebel boy." Jade cracked.

Caleb winced upon his mistake. "Okay, that's _five _lamps I owe you."

"Caleb, they were all worthy foes." Yan Lin joked slightly before becoming serious as she continued to explain. "But once he's performed the Ceremony, a part of her is already in Meridian. Her resistance to his emissary's appeals will weaken."

"That's why Elyon needs to know!" Cornelia persisted.

"Cornelia we've been over this." Will argued. "If we tell her, she either won't believe us, or she'll believe us and totally freak! How does that help her?"

"Uncle Jackie, can't you get Section 13 to watch her?" Hay Lin asked.

"I already spoke with Captain Black and they have Elyon currently under surveillance." Jackie answered.

"What about Cedric? Has Section 13 found him yet?" Caleb asked.

"No, more than likely he's returned to Meridian." Jackie answered.

"Besides, Elyon's already protected by a chi-spell, right?" Jade asked. "And Phobos has to 'capture her breath' or whatever to complete this Ceremony-thing, but if he and his goon-squad can't touch her, he can't perform the Ceremony."

"Even so, we cannot afford to let our guard down, Jade." Tohru said. "Don't forget, Phobos has a chi-wizard of his own. It is possible for Daolon Wong to create a counter-spell."

"Possible, but not likely." Uncle stated. "Uncle spent weeks toiling over cauldron to make complex protection spell for Elyon. If Daolon Wong wants to create a counter-spell, he must make an equally complex spell himself. But only Uncle knows the contents of the protection spell." He pointed to his head for emphasis.

"Oh, so you guys won't let me warn her, but your relying an old-man's 'protection spell' and letting a government organization watch her like she's a terrorist!" Cornelia protested.

"Uh, uh, uh!" Yan Lin shook her finger. "Cornelia, you must respect Will's instincts and Jackie's experience."

"Yeah, Uncle Jackie and I have been through so much evil shenanigans. Trust us, the Chan Clan knows what we're doing." Jade added.

Cornelia looked as though she was about to protest, but Jackie put a firm yet gentle hand on her shoulder. "Cornelia, I understand you feel concerned for Elyon, and you're right to be concerned. But we can't afford to tell her while her life is in danger, she'll learn the truth eventually, but now is not the time."

The blonde looked toward Caleb for any possible support who could only give a small sigh. "Sorry, but I gotta go with Will and Jackie on this one." This resulted in Cornelia lowering herself in the form of a sad sulk.

"So long as the protection spell remains in place, Elyon is safe." Tohru said. "Out of reach from the Forces of Darkness."

As much as Uncle wanted to believe them, he knew from personal experience that they can't let their guard down. "As long as Phobos, Daolon Wong, and Cedric remain free; _nothing _is truly safe."

Will suddenly felt a familiar pulsing from her jacket, she took out the Heart of Kandrakar, as well as the map she carried. Once she placed the map on the table and lowered the Heart, an x formed to reveal a newly opened portal.

"Uh oh, looks like we got another portal." Jade said as the group was now on high alert.

"It looks like this one opened up at the school!" Hay Lin observed.

"Phobos is shaping the Veil so all the holes in it are near his sister." Yan Lin said.

"Taranee and Irma are at the school right now!" Will exclaimed.

* * *

_Sheffield Institute _

It was already nighttime as Irma and Taranee were still in the middle of a meeting with most of the school paper's staff trying to find their next story. "Okay, okay, okay, this is really big!" Bess said to Taranee while Irma just looked bored out of her head.

"Gretta Merano wore her blue plaid skirt _twice _this week!" Courtney said.

Taranee was far from impressed. "Okay that's not exactly a story."

"Ooooh, just print it and let's go!" Irma practically begged as Uriah laughed and chucked a paper ball at her head. Suddenly everyone heard loud crash that pretty much echoed throughout most of the school. "What was that?" Irma questioned.

"Well, Martin said he wasn't coming in until he had a huge story…" Taranee responded. "…which means he's in the cafeteria and that was probably him knocking over all the bunt pans."

* * *

_Cafeteria _

Martin was indeed in the cafeteria, hiding behind the main lunch counter, however, it wasn't him that made all the noise, something else did, and he was going to find out what with his trusty camera.

He peeked out from his hiding spot to see several chairs fall down and move on their own. He almost screamed but covered his own mouth and hid behind the counter again. "A good reporter stays calm." He said to himself as he peeked out to try and take a picture of what he saw but found nothing.

However, Martin heard a crash from the plates in the kitchen behind him before an invisible force shot past him and into the dining area, where it began to knock down all the chairs that it had ran past before rushing out the door, leaving a trail of purple slime. Martin didn't hesitate to take pictures of the whole thing.

Once he had what he needed, he rushed out of the cafeteria. However, Martin failed to notice that this invisible creature had some form of collar around its neck, a collar made out of dark blue energy that chained it to a scepter being held by Daolon Wong who remained in the shadows with an evil smirk.

* * *

Martin rushed into the editing room with a triumphant yell. "Exclusive story! School ghost! Photos to come!"

Nobody seemed to believe him, however. "Martin, I told you. That's called air conditioning."

"Uh no, I saw it this time!" Martin said. "Uh well… I didn't _see _it, but I saw what it _did_! Or what it had done… but uh… you'll see!" He ran into another room to get the photos developed.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the school's basement; Jackie, Will, Jade, Hay Lin, Tohru, Uncle, Cornelia, and Caleb had all arrived at the open porta, and Will was more than ready to use the Heart of Kandrakar to close it.

"Wait! Don't close the portal!" Caleb stated.

"Why not?" Jackie asked.

"Something may have come through, look." Caleb shined a flashlight around the corner to show a trail of purple slime.

"What is it?" Tohru as Caleb kneeled down to inspect the substance.

"This can only come from one thing: a Hermeneuta Beast!" The young rebel revealed.

Jade winced. "I'm afraid to ask."

Uncle suddenly felt a chill go down his spine. "Hermeneuta Beast not important! Daolon Wong is near!" With that revelation, the entire group was on the defensive ready to strike out at anything that might attack them.

"Closer than you think, novice." Daolon Wong stepped out of the shadows, revealing the Hermeneuta Beast he kept chained via his magic to his scepter. The beast looked similar to that of a pig as it squealed in despair, turning visible and invisible over and over.

Hay Lin seemed the most offended by what Wong has done. "Hey! How dare you chain an innocent animal like that!"

"We'll take it back home after we put the smack-down on this guy!" Will stated as she held the Heart of Kandrakar. **"Guardians Unite!" **

With another flashy transformation; Will, Cornelia, and Hay Lin had transformed into their respective Guardian forms as they stood alongside Jackie, Jade, Caleb, Uncle, and Tohru.

"**Gan! Ren! Chui!" **Daolon Wong had summoned the Dark Chi Enforcers to his side. "Destroy them!" He ordered his warriors while also letting the Hermeneuta Beast loose. The creature turned invisible as it charged and frightfully knocked down the heroes, giving the Dark Chi Enforcers an opportunity to leap at them while they were down with their respective weapons.

However, the heroes were quick to recover as they engaged the enemy, however Jackie saw the invisible pig-like creature run up the stairs, leaving a trail of purple slime. "Jade! Get the Hermeneuta Beast!" Jackie stated as he avoided slashes from Finn's bladed weapon.

"Got it!" Jade nodded as she ran up the stairs to try and catch up with it. However, Wong smirked in the direction she ran and disappeared in a puff of blue smoke which followed up in the same path.

"He is going after Jade!" Tohru exclaimed as he tried to push Ratso back.

"I will protect Jade!" Uncle quickly said as he ran up the stairs leaving the six heroes to deal with the Dark Chi Enforcers.

Finn threw his bladed weapon towards Will as she tried to fly away, though the weapon tracked her like a homing missile. Jackie tried to attack Finn directly with a flying kick, but the Enforcer was able to block it by crossing his arms and used his own strength as a Dark Chi Warrior to force Jackie back before going on the offensive as his weapon returned. However, this left him open for Will to fly down with a punch to Finn's jaw and knock him back.

Chow circled around Caleb with his staff as the young rebel picked up a stray map and spun it around like a master before motioning with his hand to 'bring it on', which Chow accepted as he swung his staff, which Caleb attempted to parry with his mop. Chow appeared to have the advantage however as he swept his feet to knock Caleb down, but Cornelia quickly flew to his defense as she used her powers over wood to lift Caleb's mop and spin at a rate like a buzz-saw to keep Chow on the defensive as he tried to block it.

Tohru was sent crashing through the wall with a swing from Ratso's hammer, but Hay Lin landed in front of the downed sumo to blast Ratso back with a gust of wind from her mouth to knock Ratso back, however, he remained on his feet as he threw his hammer at the pair, forcing Hay Lin and Tohru to split up and avoid the devastating impact the hammer left on the wall.

* * *

Back upstairs, Jade appeared to have the Hermeneuta Beast cornered as it turned visible. Though Jade was slightly freaked out by its purple-drool, she tried to act calm and collected.

"Whoa, it's okay little guy. I'm not gonna hurt you." Jade tried to ease the creature while slowly walking toward it. "Come on little piggy, hold still for Jade." However, Jade didn't notice Daolon Wong materializing from a puff of dark blue smoke behind her, but the Hermeneuta Beast did. The second the pig-like creature saw him; it gave a frightened squeak as it turned invisible and ran into Jade. However, Jade tried to hold onto its invisible body to stop it only to get carried off with a scream.

Daolon Wong gave an amused laugh as he saw this, however, he was forced to quickly conjure a dark shield to protect himself from chi-blasts from Uncle as the old, yet nimble, chi-wizard flipped over him to land in front of the dark wizard.

"I must admit I've underestimated you, good wizard." Daolon Wong said. "For you to create such a potent spell to protect the princess."

"So that is why you are here." Uncle realized. "You _do_ wish to create a counter-spell!"

"Of course, and you will tell me how to make it." Wong sneered.

Uncle gave an applaud gasp. "That Uncle cannot do."

"I don't recall giving you a choice!" Wong blasted a stream of dark chi at Uncle, who retaliated with a blast of good chi magic from his blowfish, locking himself and Wong in a beam-struggle.

* * *

After all the other staff-members left the school, if only because it was so late at night, Irma couldn't help but let out an annoyed groan. "Can you believe Martin? Ghosts? I mean, really?"

"Not that I believe him or anything, but we _have _seen some pretty crazy thing since we meet Jackie and the others." Taranee pointed out.

"True." Irma shrugged. However, their attention was quickly caught by the mixed sounds of screaming and a pig-like squeal as the invisible Hermeneuta Beast came around the corner, with Jade still holding on the top of it. Taranee and Irma didn't have time to voice their surprise as the invisible beast rammed through them, knocking Jade off in the process as it continued to run through the hallways, leaving a trail of purple slime as it ran.

"Wha… Jade!" Taranee exclaimed as all three of them were covered in purple saliva.

"Hey guys…" Jade groaned slightly as they pulled themselves up.

"So there really is a ghost?" Irma questioned in surprise before she almost gagged at the slime that covered her body. "Please tell me this is just ectoplasm."

"Well, not so much a ghost, but more like an invisible pig." Jade answered. "And that's the _least _of our worries right now."

* * *

Uncle ran along the wall as he continued to blast stun-spells at Wong with his blowfish as the dark wizard retaliated with his own dark chi-spells. The two leapt at each other as Uncle grabbed Wong's wrist of the hand that held his scepter, while Wong grabbed the wrist of Uncle that was holding the blowfish. They spun around in mid-air, almost in slow-motion, as they tried to blast their respective spells at each other's heads before landing on the ground.

"You are headstrong, wizard." Wong said. "But not for long…" He smirked as a pair of Shadowkhan suddenly appeared above Uncle. The only reaction the elder chi-wizard could give was a surprised gasp before he was knocked unconscious with a neck-chop from one Shadowkhan. The two ninjas picked up Uncle's unconscious body as Wong got back up as well.

"Hey!" They turned to see Jade, Irma, and Taranee arrive on the scene from around the corner. "Get your hands off the Uncster!" The three tried to rush in and help, only to be blasted back by Wong.

"Your 'Uncster' and myself have much to discuss." Wong said before he waved his scepter, creating a large plum of dark blue smoke to engulf himself, the two Shadowkhan accompanying him, and the unconscious Uncle before they all vanished completely.

* * *

Back in the basement; Jackie, Will, Tohru, Hay Lin, Caleb, and Cornelia continued their battle against Finn, Ratso, and Chow and it seemed like they were evenly matched for the most part.

"Huh, you know I'm really gonna miss these little get-togethers." Chow said.

"We sure gonna miss ya guys." Ratso also said as they were ready to throw their weapons at the heroes.

"Say goodbye, Chan!" Finn stated. However, before they could even think about attacking, they suddenly poofed and vanished, much to the heroes' confusion.

"Um… Goodbye, Chan?" Jackie said in a confused tone of voice.

"What just happened?" Will asked.

"Please tell me they just gave up and ran home." Cornelia hopped.

"Guys! Guys!" They all looked in surprise to hear Taranee calling them as she ran downstairs with Jade, and Irma. "Daolon Wong just captured Uncle!"

That hit all of them like a load of bricks as they all gave surprised gasps. "What?!" Tohru and Jackie both exclaimed in shock as they all exchanged looks of worry and fear with one another.

* * *

_The Silver Dragon_

After revealing that Uncle had been captured, Jackie went with Caleb through the school's portal to Meridian to try and scout Phobos' castle and find a way to rescue Uncle. Of course, Tohru, Jade, and the Guardians were more than willing to join them; but Jackie insisted they stay back just in case this proved to be a trap as this was merely a scouting mission. So Tohru escorted all six girls back to Hay Lin's family restaurant, though none of them could contain their own fear, even Cornelia seemed more than a little bit worried.

"Poor Uncle, I hope he's okay." Hay Lin said.

"Sensei is strong, I'm sure he'll be just fine." Tohru offered his opinion, though he himself was more than a little worried for his beloved sensei.

"What I don't get is why Wong would even bother taking Uncle." Cornelia said. "I mean, what can Phobos even gain from that?"

"Because Jin was the one who created the chi-spell that is currently protecting Elyon." Yan Lin answered as she arrived onto the scene.

"Which means Phobos took him so that Wong can make a _counter_-spell!" Will exclaimed with realization as it set in for everyone, with most of the girls giving audible gasps.

"So, what are we waiting for then?!" Jade was already on her feet. "Let's grab the Talismans, storm through the portal, and go full-Rambo on them!"

"Jade, you know how hard it is to sneak into Phobos' castle!" Taranee protested.

"We've done it before, haven't we?" Jade reminded.

"Exactly." Taranee continued. "And since his minions took Uncle, it means he's going to be _expecting _us! We'd be walking head-first into a trap!"

"Yeah, I'm with Taranee." Irma agreed.

"But…" Jade was about to protest when the shop's door opened.

"They're right Jade." Jackie said as he and Caleb arrived into the restaurant.

"Jackie! Caleb!" Will stated, standing up with everyone else. "What did you guys find!"

"Phobos has his castle under complete lockdown." Jackie answered. "It was almost impossible just sneaking in through the castle-town below."

"He has guards and Shadowkhan all over the place." Caleb added. "He's had his guard up ever since Vathek escaped. He _really_ doesn't want anyone in his castle."

"So _now _can we warn Elyon?" Cornelia questioned. "Considering, Phobos might have a way to get to her now!"

"What would you have us do, Cornelia?" Will questioned. "Tell her she has a psycho older brother who wants to brainwash her? Lock her up in Section 13 till this whole thing blows over?"

"Well no but…" The blonde tried to protest, but Yan Lin held up her hand to stop her.

"We are in a very delicate situation Cornelia." The former Guardian said. "If we act rash, we may be simply throwing gas onto a fire. We have to step very carefully."

"What about our little 'ghost problem'?" Irma asked, referring to the Hermeneuta Beast.

"The Hermeneuta Beast can wait, Sensei needs our help even more." Tohru asked. "We have to rescue him."

"And we will, but we need to come up with a plan." Jackie said.

"Nearly every possible entrance into Phobos' castle is either blocked off or guarded." Caleb said. "If we're going to sneak in, we need someone who knows Phobos' castle better than Phobos himself. Someone who can get in through even the tiniest cracks."

Almost on que, the group heard a shaking noise from a nearby trash can. Hay Lin walked over and removed the lid to reveal Blunk eating some of the trash from the bin.

"The long search is over." Yan Lin commented.

"Blunk, can you figure out a way into Phobos' castle?" Will asked the Passling.

He crawled out of the bin and onto the floor. "Blunk report for duty! Tell good guys all secrets of evil castle! Offer low-low fee!" Yan Lin presented a fortune-cookie from a tray on a table, which Blunk didn't hesitate to eat, not even bothering to read the fortune inside. "Fee deposited, Blunk help!"

"Alright." Jackie began. "Blunk, Caleb, Tohru, Miss Lin and I will come up with a plan. You girls go home and get some rest."

"Are you sure there's nothing we else can do?" Taranee asked.

"Once we have a plan, we'll tell you immediately." Tohru said. "But I believe that Sensei will surprise us."

"Oh, I'm quite certain of that myself." Yan Lin added. "Girls, please remember this is Jin Chan we are talking about."

The six girls had to think back a small bit as they reminded themselves just what kind of person Uncle was, which caused them to relax, and even Jade to smirk. Though they were all still worried about him, they knew he could handle himself. Knowing Uncle's personality and stubbornness, if anything they actually felt a tad sorry for Phobos.

* * *

_Meridian – Phobos' Castle_

"So, the Prince of Darkness wants a piece of Uncle?" The elder chi-wizard challenged as he was brought into Phobos' throne room, his hands tied behind his back as he was surrounded by multiple guards, including Daolon Wong. "Phobos is a glutton for punishment after the butt-kicking Uncle gave you."

"The only thing I desire from you wizard, is your knowledge!" Phobos stated as he continued to sit on his throne. "I know you placed a spell on my sister, tell me how to remove it!"

"Ancient proverb: none of your beeswax!" Uncle stated in defiance.

Phobos growled as he motioned for multiple thorny vines to emerge from the ground, ensnare Uncle, and bring him closer to the dark prince. "Do I look like I'm in the mood for games?! I will make this simple. You will tell me how to remove your spell from Elyon, or I will see to it you suffer endlessly!"

Uncle wasn't the least-bit intimidated by Phobos, however. "What is hexed, cannot be unhexed."

"Then you will create a counter-spell immediately… OW!" Phobos did not expect Uncle to deliver a dope-slap to his forehead, despite Uncle's hands being previously tied.

"Why should _I _create counter-spell for naughty prince, when you have a wizard of your own!?" Uncle questioned, gesturing to Daolon Wong.

Phobos' eyebrow twitched slightly as he was more than ready to silence Uncle permanently, but before he could, Daolon Wong spoke up. "My prince, if I may. I believe I know of a way he may give us what he need, but it will take some time for me to prepare."

"Time is growing short Wong." Phobos said in a low growl. "The Ceremony of the Amalgamation must be completed soon!"

"Foolish prince will not succeed." Uncle stated, only irritating Phobos even more.

"This wizard is headstrong and stubborn to a fault." Wong said to the dark prince. "It's little wonder his nephew is so persistent. We may not get what we need from him by force in time to complete the ceremony. However, I promise that I can have him prepared to give the information we need in less than twenty-four hours."

Phobos knew Wong was right, if the Ceremony failed, any chance at bringing Elyon to his side would be lost. It wasn't just that however, he knew how strong and resourceful the Guardians and Chan all were, the longer he waited, the greater the risk they'd come to rescue the old wizard, even with the heavy guard he placed on his castle. He motioned for the vines to lower, allowing the guards to grab Uncle.

"Do what you must, Wong." Phobos nodded to him, allowing Wong to sneer evilly as Uncle could only glare.

* * *

_Earth – Sheffield Institute – the Next Day_

"Ghosts to the left of me, ghosts to the right, I fought!" Martin recalled his thrilling tale to the class. "But I was out-number, and one lifted a desk!"

"Um, last time you said a chair." One student pointed out.

"It was one of those desk-chair thingies a lot of schools are using now, okay?" Martin replied. "Please! Hold your questions until the end!"

"Let's get back to studying _geography_, not ghosts." The teacher told Martin.

Jade soon whispered to Will. "Captain Black had a Section 13 team watch the school all night last night, they got nothing. Guess even alien pigs gotta sleep."

Suddenly, a series of loud crashes was heard outside the classroom. The teacher and the entire class looked outside and gave surprised gasps and yells to see purple slime all over the floors and lockers.

"Ah ha! Ectoplasm!" Martin already had his camera out and began taking pictures. "Sorry teach, geography takes a backseat to the people's right to know the truth!"

* * *

_Meridian _

Uncle was strapped to a table as Daolon Wong had his hands placed on Uncle's head as he recited his dark magic chant. Uncle, in turn, recited his own chant to try and resist Wong's spell. _"Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao! Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao! Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao!"_

They had been going like this for several hours now, and it seemed like it would go on even longer. However, despite Uncle's best efforts, Daolon Wong proved to be much stronger as Uncle slowly lost his focus from a lack-of-sleep. Once Wong had broken through, a purple smoke escaped from Uncle's forehead as it seemed like his body had lost consciousness. The smoke then flowed behind Wong as he continued to recite his chant which then flowed into a purple crystal orb.

Suddenly, Uncle's transparent head formed inside the orb. "Aiya!" The elder wizard exclaimed in shock at seeing his new state. "What has happened to Uncle's body?!" He questioned once he saw his own unresponsive body.

"Your body still lives." Wong answered. "But your spirit is now trapped outside of it. And soon, you will divulge to me all your secrets."

* * *

_Earth – Sheffield Institute _

It seemed like the entire school was in an uproar as every student, and even a few teachers, were up and about looking for this mysterious ghost, or whatever was leaving behind a trail of purple slime all across the hallway. Jade, Irma, Will, Hay Lin, Cornelia, and Taranee all met up away from a group to speak in private.

"So far, Martin has nothing." Irma said. "And what he says, no one believes."

"Good thing he's unpopular." Hay Lin commented.

"I got a text from Uncle Jackie." Jade said. "We got a plan to rescue Uncle and we're meeting at the Silver Dragon tonight."

"So, we'll get Uncle back and get that pig-thing back home at the same time, but we can't let anyone see us do it as J-WITCH." Will said.

"So, we'll do it tonight after everyone leaves the school." Taranee said. "I can give the newspaper team the night off."

"Let's hope Phobos didn't get anything out of the old timer." Cornelia hoped.

"I swear I'm gonna laugh my butt off if Phobos' forehead is red." Jade smirked, an image the other girls snickered at.

However, the girls saw Martin walking by with a sleeping bag. "Martin? You got a slumber party planned or something?" Irma questioned.

"Oh, I'm staking out this joint, day and night." Martin said eagerly, much to the girls' frustration.

* * *

_Meridian – Phobos' Castle_

Daolon Wong had returned to the dark prince's throne room to present the imprisoned Uncle's head inside the crystal orb. Though Phobos himself looked rather perplexed.

"Wong, care to explain?"

"My prince, this is the Orb of Kwan Lo." Wong explained. "It'll expose all thoughts that the captive holds most dear. No one has ever been able to keep a secret from me with this."

Phobos smirked evilly as he stepped down from his throne to address Uncle directly. "Not so defiant now, are you wizard? This will be your last chance. If you tell me how to create a counter-spell for Elyon, I will not only return you to your body, but even release you to Earth. Continue to resist me, however, and I will show no mercy!"

Uncle gave a small sigh. "Very well, listen closely." Both Phobos and Wong leaned in close to the orb as Uncle spoke. "You may find what you are looking for in a secret place. Very close to…" However, once they were close enough, Uncle spat out his tongue to blow raspberries at the duo, much to their frustration.

Phobos growled. "I gave you your chance! Wong, do what you must!"

"With pleasure." Wong sneered as he used his magic to make the orb glow and expose some of Uncle's thoughts. However, the image of a sandwich appeared in the orb, much to Phobos and Wong's surprise. "Mung bean sandwich?!"

"Uncle is hungry."

"Go deeper!" Phobos ordered.

"I shall peel back the layers…" Wong pried even deeper, however this time, the image of Phobos and Wong, both bent over, appeared with Uncle himself delivering a paddle-strike to each of their rear ends. "…What is this?!"

"Your destiny, evil ones." Uncle trolled.

At this point, Phobos had nearly lost all his patience and was more than tempted to end Uncle's life right then and there, and it took all his self-control to prevent him from doing so. "You might just be the most stubborn soul I've ever met. But you only delay the inevitable."

"Fret not, I shall travel even _deeper_, into the very recesses of his mind." Wong used his magic again. This time, he found what he had needed as he learned the precise ingredients for the protection-spell. "Yes." Wong sneered. "My Prince, I have what I need. It may take some time, but I promise by tonight, you will have a proper counter-spell."

Phobos smiled evilly. "Excellent." As the dark prince let loose an evil laugh, Uncle himself looked down in shame.

* * *

_Earth – Silver Dragon_

Once classes got out, the girls all met up with Jackie, Caleb, Tohru, and Blunk at the Silver Dragon to discuss their plan. Jackie had a picture drawn of Phobos' castle as he began to relay instructions to everyone.

"Alright, we have to rescue Uncle." Jackie began. "But at the same time, we have to get that Hermeneuta Beast back into Meridian through the portal. So, here's the plan; Will, Blunk, and I will go to Meridian to rescue Uncle, while the rest of you capture the beast."

"How are you guys gonna get in if Phobos has his entire castle under lockdown?" Taranee asked.

"Blunk know secret way in." The Passling said as he pointed to the picture of the castle, specifically through the bottom. "Through same tunnel we use to escape oubliette."

"Back during our first adventure together? Cool." Jade said with a smirk.

"There are likely two places Phobos would keep the old man." Caleb said. "Either in his throne room, or in Daolon Wong's chambers."

"Blunk know where evil wizard stays." Blunk pointed out.

"Jackie, even when you and Will get into the castle, I imagine that navigating through it, not to mention escaping it, will be incredibly difficult." Tohru guessed.

"I know, that is why we will be using these." Jackie took out five of the Talismans, specifically the Dragon, Snake, Rabbit, Rooster, and Horse.

"We're using the Talismans?" Will asked in surprise as the other girls didn't expect Jackie to suggest something like that considering he always talked about how dangerous they were.

"I will be using the Rabbit Talisman." Jackie clarified. "Will, you will use the Snake and Dragon for both stealth and extra fire-power just in case" He handed the two to the redhead. "Jade, you'll be helping the others with the Hermeneuta Beast, so take the Rooster and the Horse just in case one of you is injured." He handed the two aforementioned Talismans to his niece.

"No problem, you got it Uncle Jackie." Jade nodded

"Looks like we have a plan then. It's time for J-WITCH!" Hay Lin exclaimed excitedly.

"One little problem though." Taranee pointed out. "Martin's sleeping at the school to get his 'big scoop'."

Hay Lin sighed and sulked into her chair. "Oh, and he's stubborn. Nothing could get him to leave the school!"

"Oh, I wouldn't say that." Jade shared a knowing look with Cornelia.

"Yeah, I can think of one thing that might." The blonde smirked.

"What?" Irma asked as Jade and Cornelia gave her knowing expressions, her own eyes widened once she realized what they were implying. "No! No way! I won't do it! Forget it! He's a total creep!"

"Aw don't worry Irma, Martin's not all that bad." Jade smirked, which Irma reacted with a heated glare.

"I said 'no'! And I mean it!" Irma exclaimed.

"Irma, please." Jackie spoke to her in a calm and understanding tone. "I understand if this is uncomfortable for you, but this could be a matter of life-and-death. Not just for Uncle, but possibly for Elyon as well."

As much as Irma didn't want to admit it, she knew they were right. This could mean the difference between life and death, and if anyone could get Martin to leave the school, it would be her, no matter how much she didn't want it to be. "Fine. But you guys owe me _big _for this!"

* * *

Night had fallen once again over Sheffield Institute, and rain even poured down as well. Martin worked with his camera in the school paper's editing room when he saw Irma walk in. She had a jacket over a rather nice and attractive outfit consisting of a red sleeveless-top, a green skirt, red boots with fish-net leggings.

"My, my, my, don't we look lovely? And by 'we', I mean 'you'." Martin observed with a grin. "What's up?"

Getting desperate, Irma tried to open the door to get out, but it wouldn't budge. The others were likely keeping it closed on the other side. "Uh, Martin would…. Would you… like to... go… let me try the door again." She desperately tried to get out of this situation once more, but to no avail. "Um would you like to go… out?"

"You mean, a date?" Martin asked with a coy grin.

"No! No! Definitely _not _a date!" Irma immediately said.

"Oh, well if it's not a date, then I gotta stay here and catch this ghost." Martin said.

Irma sulked. "Alright, it's a damn date!"

"Wow! Let's go!" Martin was immediately on his feet with a jacket on. He grabbed Irma by the wrist and bolted out the door, not noticing Jackie, Will, Jade, Cornelia, Tohru, Hay Lin, Caleb, and Blunk hiding on the other side. "Oh, this will be the best date you ever had! I'll take lots of pictures!"

Once they saw the pair had left and they were in the clear, Will took out the Heart of Kandrakar. "It's Guardian time."

* * *

Captain Black sat in his own van a block away from Elyon's house as he and his agents have been keeping a very close eye on the girl for some time. Yan Lin was also present with them.

"So, Captain, what have you found so far?" The elderly woman asked.

"From what I can tell, Elyon goes from school to home and hasn't been anywhere since." Captain Black reported. "Anyone she's made contact with; we've confirmed are citizens of both Heatherfield and Earth. No evil shapeshifters, but we haven't caught site of Cedric yet."

Yan Lin sighed, one of both relief and worry. "Phobos does not have her breath, at least not yet."

* * *

_Meridian – Phobos Castle _

After sneaking their way in through the oubliette, Will and Jackie had split up to head for their respective destinations. Will carried Blunk with her as she used the Snake Talisman to keep both of them invisible while she quietly flew through the halls and over a pair of unsuspecting guards.

Blunk snickered. "Guards stupid."

"Blunk, sshh!" The invisible Will clasped her hand over his mouth as the guards looked up, but once they saw nothing, they simply shrugged and resumed their patrol.

"The Talisman keeps us from being _seen_, not _heard_!" Will spoke in a harsh whisper, as she and the Passling remained invisible. "Keep it down!"

"Blunk Sorry."

"Okay, so where's Wong's room?" Will asked in a whisper.

"Not far. Further down hall." Blunk answered as the invisible pair flew down the hallway before making a sharp turn around the corner to a door.

Will quietly set herself down, with Blunk clinging to her shoulder, both of them still invisible. She quietly and slowly opened the door and stepped inside. As it turned out, there were two rooms, the one they were in had Uncle's unresponsive body strapped to a table, while in a separate room, Daolon Wong himself worked on making a counter-spell with a black cauldron and a dark purple liquid inside. Wong made a series of chants as the invisible Will tip-toed to the door and quietly closed it so Wong wouldn't see them.

Once that was done, she took out the Dragon Talisman and fired small, yet condensed, shots to break the restraints around Uncle. The invisible Blunk took a brief sniff. "Old man alive." The Passling whispered.

"Then let's go." The invisible Will took Uncle's unconscious body and used the Snake Talisman's power to turn his body invisible as well as she had physical contact with him. They quickly and quietly left the chamber before Will took out a walkie-talkie she and Jackie were given before coming to Meridian.

"Jackie, Blunk and I found Uncle." She spoke into the communication device in a whisper. "He's out cold, but he's alive."

* * *

"You found Uncle?" Jackie asked in a whisper as he hung from a gargoyle-statue near the ceiling from inside Phobos throne room, he looked down to see Phobos himself having something of a heated conversation with Uncle's spiritual head, still trapped inside the Orb of Kwan Lo. "Because I think I found him as well."

"_Wait… what?" _Will questioned.

"Take Uncle's body." Jackie told her. "I'll meet you back at the oubliette as soon as I can." He then slowly and quietly began to descend the wall toward the floor.

"You are crazy if you think Daolon Wong will create counter-spell!" Uncle told the dark prince.

"Oh? And who, pray tell, will stop him?" Phobos questioned.

Uncle noticed his nephew quietly land on the ground. "Jackie?" Jackie himself put a finger in front of his mouth, motioning for him to be quiet.

Phobos gave a small chuckle. "Chan has proven to be a formidable adversary; I will admit that much. But he is still only a mortal man, with no magic powers whatsoever." Phobos turned his back to Uncle. This would likely be the best time to grab Uncle as Jackie quickly and quietly came to the pedestal to grab the orb. "Nothing to say, wizard?" Phobos asked upon realizing his captive hadn't offered a retort. "Cat got your…" Phobos then gasped as Jackie himself put his own head to the pedestal.

"Uh… One more thing!" He tried to put on an Uncle-impression, but Phobos wasn't convinced as he glared at Jackie. "Who am I kidding?" He used the Rabbit Talisman to make a run for it, bursting out of the main gates with the orb containing his Uncle's spiritual head.

The guards outside only looked perplexed as the saw the blur. "Guards! Sound the alarm!" Phobos exclaimed to the guards. "Intruders in the castle!"

* * *

Using the Rabbit Talisman, Jackie ran at super-speed throughout the hallways of the castle, he was about to contact Will through the walkie-talkie, had he not accidentally ran into her as she, Bunk, and Uncle's body were still invisible. They all tumbled on the ground rather painfully, Will, Blunk, and Uncle's body briefly turning visible again while the orb containing Uncle's spiritual head rolled along the floor toward a set of stairs.

"Aiya! Stop my head!" Uncle exclaimed. Before the orb could fall, Jackie quickly reached out to grab it.

"Um Jackie…?" Will pointed between Uncle's body and his spiritual head, hoping for some kind of explanation, as even Blunk more than a little perplexed.

Jackie himself could only sigh. "I've stopped asking questions like that a long time ago. Let's just get out of here."

"Blunk know way out! Follow!" The Passling hopped to the floor and led the pair away as Will continued to carry Uncle's body while Jackie carried his head.

"Jackie, Will, you are going wrong way!" Uncle told them.

"We know where we're going, Uncle!" Jackie responded as Blunk lead them around the corner only for the Passling to give a surprised yelp, followed by Jackie and Will to look in shock at the sight of two dozen armed guards and Lurdens blocking their path.

"See? Wrong way." Uncle reminded.

Will sighed. "Well, so much for stealth." She took out the Dragon Talisman and aimed it at the enemy forces. "Eat dragon heat!" She blasted at them as Jackie used the Rabbit Talisman to run at super-speed and charge forward as well.

* * *

As the commotion continued outside, Daolon Wong had just finished the preparations with the counter-spell as it shined a bright indigo color from the cauldron. "So, they've come for the old fool." Wong spoke to himself having heard the alarm. "Which would mean the portal is still open." He snickered evilly as he produced a vile to carry the counter-spell, at the same time, the shadows around him only grew as several red eyes formed.

"Take this." Wong gave the vile containing the counter-spell to the shadows as they produced a hand to obtain the vile. "Cross the veil through the portal and deliver that to Cedric." The Shadowkhan then melted back into the shadows and disappeared with the counter-spell.

* * *

_Earth – Sheffield Institute _

Tohru, Jade, Caleb, Cornelia, Taranee, and Hay Lin, in their Guardian forms, appeared to have the Hermeneuta Beast cornered as it was visible but remained defensive of the group.

"We got it into the hall, now chase it into one of those nets! Go!" Caleb stated. The group charged as the beast turned indivisible and ran down the hall, though with the path of purple slime it was leaving behind, it might as well have been visible to them.

Tohru and Caleb ran while the three Guardians flew in the air with Jade alongside them thanks to the Rooster Talisman. Fortunately, they wouldn't have to chase it much farther as the net they had set up was in front of the beast. It ran into the net, causing it to collapse and ensnare around the pig-like creature, trapping it. Tohru even grabbed the net with one hand to hold the crying and struggling beast.

"I have it!" Tohru stated.

"Now we drop it off into the portal, wait for Will and Jackie to come back with Uncle, then close it up." Taranee said.

"And we're home in time to shower in disinfectant." Cornelia commented as she tried to rub some of the purple slime off her hand.

"You know, I kinda feel bad for the little guy." Jade commented.

"Yeah, I mean it's not his fault. Just that mean old Daolon Wong." Hay Lin added. "Kinda gonna miss him."

Suddenly, a much louder roar sounded, alerting the group as they turned around to see an invisible mass turn visible to reveal an even _larger _Hermeneuta Beast, that looked even bigger than Tohru.

"Apparently so did its mother." Caleb commented as they all looked more than a little shocked.

"Wait… so _this_ thing is a baby!?" Jade exclaimed, referring to the smaller beast in Tohru's net. She then remembered how mother animals often acted when their babies were threatened, and her eyes widened with dread. "Uh oh."

The mother Hermeneuta gave a roar as it charged the group, specifically Tohru holding the captured baby. Tohru didn't even have time to get out of the way as he was rammed and trampled by the mother, it rolled him across the ground with its snout before running over him and kicking him with his back-legs to send him crashing through the lockers.

Taranee flew toward the mother as she produced a series of fire-balls to throw at the beast, but it turned invisible and ran at incredible speeds one would consider impossible for its size, causing the fireballs to miss as the mother rammed both Taranee and Hay Lin, sending them smacking hard into the wall.

While the beast was occupied, Jade quickly came to the injured Tohru to hand him the Horse Talisman. "Magic first aid." She said as she placed the Talisman in his hand, causing all his injuries to vanish instantly.

Cornelia then tried to use her powers to cause a brief tremor, shaking the tiles from the floor loose, which she shot at the mother, briefly knocking it off its feet. Tohru then came in from behind to grab the mother. Using his own strength, Tohru was able to keep the beast from running away, but it put up quite a fight that even gave Tohru a run for his money. Caleb tried to provide some assistance by leaping onto the beast and wrapping his arms around her neck.

"Hungry mama pig?" Jade said as she used the telekinetic powers from the Rooster Talisman to lift some desks from a nearby classroom. "Well eat this!" She chucked them at the beast, however, the mother was far stronger than anyone could have anticipated as it not only shook both Caleb and Tohru off, but even swung its snout to bat away all the thrown desks before charging at Jade to ram into her and knock her into a wall. Fortunately, she still held the Horse Talisman, so her injuries didn't last.

During this time, the baby Hermeneuta Beast had managed to escape the net it was entangled in and ran off with a squeal, prompting the mother to run after it.

The group groaned as they got up, most of them covered in purple slime. "I'm never eating pork again." Jade shivered.

"Yeah, I never thought I'd say this… but I envy Irma." Cornelia added.

* * *

Irma continued to follow Martin through the city, having just left a Coney Island restaurant for dinner. "So, would you say you enjoyed your dinner, my dear?" Martin asked, trying to act like a gentleman.

"Eh, it wasn't horrible." Irma shrugged. While she actually liked Coney Dogs, it only made this night somewhat pleasant as she had to share it with Martin. But then again, it wasn't completely horrible either.

"Well then, how about we finish this lovely night with theater?" Martin offered.

"Oh, let me guess: Dungeons and Dragons the movie?" Irma questioned sarcastically.

"Ha! You wish!" Martin said excitedly as they were already at the movie. "How about 'Fast and Furious – The Return of the Road-Rage'!"

That actually took Irma by surprise, 'Fast and Furious' was one of her favorite movie franchises. It was also one of her bonding moments with Jade as well. "Wait… seriously?! I had no idea you were even into that!"

"Never judge a book by its cover." Martin said as he offered his arm. "Shall we?"

Irma actually smiled. "Sure, why not?" She accepted his arm and they walked inside the theater. Though this might actually be a pretty good night, she was still worried for her friends, especially Jackie and Will as they actually had to go into another dimension to rescue Uncle. But then again, she was sure they would make it out in one piece.

* * *

_Meridian – Phobos' Castle_

Will and Jackie had to fight their way all the way back down to the dungeon where they came in. Will still carried Uncle's dormant body over her shoulder as she blasted every guard and Lurden that came her way with the Dragon Talisman. Of course, that was all she could do as she couldn't fight with punches and kicks while carrying the body.

"Blunk, take Uncle and do not let go!" Jackie told the Passling as he handed Uncle's spiritual head, still trapped inside the Orb of Kwan Lo, before using the Rabbit Talisman to zoom into a large group of guards and Lurdens. With such speed, there was no way the enemy could react in time to Jackie delivering precise punches and kicks to send them flying and crashing through the walls.

However, one guard loomed over Blunk with a hammer in his hands. "Aiya!" Uncle exclaimed as Blunk gave a surprised yelp before jumping to avoid the hammer-strike. Will saw the predicament Blunk was in and quickly blasted the guard away with the Dragon Talisman.

Blunk gave a sigh of relief as he wiped his brow. "Is that everyone?" Will asked Jackie.

"I believe so." Jackie assumed. "But let's lead before Phobos himself tries to stop us."

Will found no reason to argue with that, but once she saw the downed hammer from the guard she blasted away, she got an idea. "Hey, could you hold onto this for a second?" She gave Jackie Uncle's unresponsive body, much to his confusion. "Blunk, put the orb down for a second." Will told the Passling as she picked up the hammer.

Blunk put the Orb down, much to Uncle's confusion. Will tried to smash the orb open with the hammer, but she didn't even cause a crack as Uncle's head inside shook before he glared. "Are you trying to give Uncle headache?!"

"I'm trying to bust you out of there!" Will stated.

"The orb is magic! Magic must open magic!" Uncle exclaimed.

Will looked towards Jackie who could only shrug with a sigh himself. "Of course, it does." With nothing else needing to be said, Blunk hopped onto Will's shoulder as she carried the orb this time, while Jackie carried Uncle's body and they left the dungeon.

* * *

_Earth _

Linda Carol was a young woman who lived a fairly simple life. She had a steady job, no current romantic relationships, and lived in a fairly reasonable apartment. At the moment however, she was tied up in a closet with a cloth tied over her mouth; she was also under the influence of a sleeping spell for good measure to keep her from making any noises or commotion.

This apartment would serve as a necessary cover for Cedric in his human form. He need only use this apartment once in order to invite and give Elyon the counter-spell that would enable himself and his allies to touch her. Of course, that all hinges on him actually _having _the spell.

"What is taking him so long?" Cedric voiced his concern, though he spoke in a calm tone, his nerves were rather racked. "I've learned not to underestimate Earth's forces, even without magic, they are certainly a thorn. They could track me at any moment, I need that spell!"

Almost as if on que, all the shadows in the apartment moved on their own as they surrounded Cedric and morphed into a group of Shadowkhan that were already kneeling to him. One of them presented the shapeshifter with a vile containing the dark blue liquid that he needed.

"The counter-spell?" Cedric asked as he took the vile, to which the Shadowkhan nodded in confirmation. "Good." He smiled evilly before taking a sealed envelope from the counter and handing it to the lead Shadowkhan. "Take this and slip it into Elyon's mailbox. Be sure that you are not seen."

The lead Shadowkhan took the envelope and disappeared with his fellow shadow-entities, leaving Cedric alone to make the proper preparations, to make Elyon feel welcomed into his 'home' for when she arrives.

* * *

_Sheffield Institute _

Hay Lin created a tornado filled with desks which she launched toward the charging mother Hermeneuta, but like with Jade's attempt, the mother bashed through the attack with little issue before turning invisible and crashing through the doors of a classroom. Jade, Tohru, and Caleb ran inside.

"Alright, we got it cornered!" Jade stated as she hovered in the air with the Rooster Talisman.

"Do we? Or does it have _us_ cornered?" Tohru asked.

"It's a giant slobbering pig! Pretty sure it's not smart enough to lure us into a trap." Jade assumed. However, when Caleb stepped forward, he slipped on some purple slime and found himself pinned underneath the mother Hermeneuta. "And it seems the pig is smarter than I thought." Jade commented.

Tohru immediately ran and slammed his elbow into the side of the mother to send her crashing to the wall. Tohru pressed against her to keep the mother pinned to the wall, despite her squealing and struggles. Jade then used the Rooster Talisman's power to levitate multiple desks and stack them around the Hermeneuta mother as Tohru backed away. However, the mother was easily able to break through Jade's attempt to contain it before rushing past her, Tohru, and Caleb, as well as Cornelia who tried to fly in.

The mother ran back into the halls before turning invisible again; prompting Cornelia and Jade to fly after it while Tohru and Caleb simply ran.

Deeper down the hall, the baby Hermeneuta bit down on a juice carton to try and get the fruity substance out. Taranee and Hay Lin tried to set themselves down gently as to not startle it, however, the commotion coming from the group down the hall was enough to frighten it and send it running with the mother in pursuit.

The heroes managed to regroup and were more than a little frustrated at their lack of progress thus far. "Even if we catch the mother, I don't believe we have any means to contain her." Tohru said.

Cornelia gave a gasp of realization. "We don't _need _to catch her; she follows the baby!"

"And it looks like baby's hungry." Jade smirked once she saw the carton the baby previously chewed on.

The group quickly entered the cafeteria where they found some frozen chicken legs, which Taranee put on the floor and began to heat up with her fire-powers. At the same time, the others were at the entrance with Tohru and Caleb holding onto the bottom corners of the net with the hovering Hay Lin, Jade, and Cornelia holding onto the top.

"Okay, this is it!" Caleb got the group ready.

"Here baby-piggy! Got some nice chicken for ya!" Jade called to it.

Hay Lin sniffed the chicken. "Oooh, that smells so good! I didn't have dinner."

"Sshh! Or you'll _be _dinner!" Cornelia scolded.

The group waited silently and anxiously for their quarry to take the bait. After about two minutes or so, the invisible baby Hermeneuta had indeed taken the bait as it tried to rush for the smoking food, only to get stuck in the net the heroes had planned. Thanks to the combined strength of all of them, especially Tohru's, they had effectively captured the baby.

Hay Lin bit down on a piece of the cooked chicken herself before speaking. "Listen you guys, he wants his mommy!"

"Yeah? Well they can have a dysfunctional family reunion back in Meridian." Jade cracked.

However, the mother had already arrived and gave warning roars at the group to release her infant. "Okay, now for the tricky part." Caleb said.

"Move!" Tohru called as he and Caleb led the way downstairs with the flying Jade, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin holding onto the baby Hermeneuta via the net; with the angry mother right behind them.

* * *

Back in the school's basement; Will, Jackie, and Blunk had just exited the portal while still carrying Uncle's unresponsive body, as well as his spiritual head still trapped inside the Orb of Kwan Lo.

"We made it." Jackie said.

"How do you think the others did with piggy?" Will asked.

"CLEAR THE WAY! CLEAR THE WAY!" Caleb's yells caught their attention as they could only gasp at the sight of their friends carrying the baby Hermeneuta with the mother at their heels. No time to question; the group split away to let Jade, Cornelia, Taranee, and Hay Lin toss the baby through the portal with the mother jumping in after her infant.

"Close the portal, Will! Now!" Tohru exclaimed.

Will did just that as she took out the Heart of Kandrakar to close the portal, preventing the Hermeneuta mother and baby, or any other Meridian wildlife, from entering their world.

"What in the world was that?!" Jackie questioned.

"Mama Hermeneuta beast!" Blunk stated. "Very nasty."

Tohru noticed Uncle's unresponsive body. "Sensei, are you alright?" He tried to shake him awake.

"Does Uncle _look_ alright?!" Oddly though, the voice did not come from Uncle, but his spiritual head. The second everyone saw it; Tohru, Jade, and Caleb gasped while Hay Lin, Cornelia, and Taranee all screamed.

"THEY CUT HIS HEAD OFF?!" Hay Lin screamed.

"Guys, it's okay!" Will quickly raised her hands to stop further panicking. "That's just Uncle's disembodied spirit. His body is still alive." She showed his unresponsive body for emphasis, causing the group to look relieved as they all sat down.

"Oh man, that nearly gave me a serious heart attack." Taranee breathed.

"We can get Uncle back to normal, right?" Jade asked.

"Actually…" Cornelia snickered as she picked up the orb. "I kinda like him better this way. And if you think about it, it's actually pretty funny." She snickered.

"Someone smack Cornelia on forehead!" Uncle stated. Jade did just that, trying to imitate Uncle's own dope-slap with her own fingers.

"OW! Jade!" The Blonde rubbed her head.

"Hey, he asked." Jade smirked with a shrug, prompting Cornelia to grumble.

Jackie gave something of a small sigh of relief, glad that the group was able to find some semblance of humor in this rather crazy situation. "Let's go home."

* * *

_Lair Residence_

After finishing the movie, Martin had offered Irma some ice-cream on his own money, which she accepted as he escorted her back home. "So, was the night as magical for you as it was for me?"

Irma had already gotten a text from Will saying their mission was complete; but aside from that, she actually had a pretty decent time: she got to have a Coney, saw a pretty cool movie, and even had ice cream. "Honestly, I've had worse nights." She confessed as she finished her frozen treat.

"Really?" Martin questioned excitedly. "Oh man! Oh man! Oh man!" Irma shrugged, thinking she might as well throw him a bone for the effort he put on for her, so she gave him a quick peck on the cheek, causing his cheeks to turn red before walking inside.

* * *

_Uncle's Rare Finds_

"_Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao." _Tohru and Yan Lin both chanted as they hung some lanterns over the desk that had Uncle's spiritual head still trapped within the Orb of Kwan Lo, while Uncle's body was sitting on a nearby chair with Jackie, Will, Irma, Jade, Cornelia, Hay Lin, Taranee, Caleb, and Blunk watching from the side.

"_Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao." _As the pair chanted, the lanterns began to glow green with chi-magic before streams of green energy shot from the lanterns to envelop the orb before it cracked open to release Uncle's spiritual head.

"Hotcha!" Uncle exclaimed joyously before he flew back inside his body, his eyes popped open as Uncle Jin Chan became whole once again. "Hello!"

"Uncle, you're back!" Jade wasted no time in hugging him, followed by Hay Lin, and even Tohru gave a pat on his shoulder with Jackie following suit as well. Though the others didn't hug him, they were nonetheless grateful he was in one piece again, even Cornelia.

"I always knew you were an air-head, Jin." Yan Lin cracked. "But I didn't mean literally."

Uncle shared a smirk. "Blame Daolon Wong for concocting such crazy spell."

"I got a question though." Taranee raised her hand. "If your spirit was trapped, why not just use the Sheep Talisman? I mean, that is the Talisman for astral projection, right?"

Uncle raised a curious eyebrow. "You ask a good question. But the Talisman would not work as my spirit was _already_ disembodied and cannot be used to separate spirit from foreign object without proper spell."

"Kinda like when Shendu hijacked when I messed with the Sheep Talisman." Jade recalled.

"Well, Uncle's back, and the portal's closed. So, mission accomplished." Will smiled.

"Mission of rescue and seal portal, yes. Mission to stop Phobos, no!" Uncle quickly said. "Daolon Wong has learned secrets of Elyon's protection spell."

"Which means, that he now has the means to create a counter-spell." Tohru realized as all celebrations the group shared had come to an end as the gravity of their situation set in.

"So, the bad guys can actually get to her now." Jade said.

"Captain Black and Section 13 are watching Elyon like a hawk." Jackie said. "They're monitoring everyone she's making contact with and running thorough background checks to make sure they are indeed citizens of Meridian and not more shapeshifters."

"But that doesn't mean Elyon's out of danger." Yan Lin said.

"All the more reason for us to protect her then." Will quickly said.

As the group began to discuss what their next plan of action would be, Cornelia remained silent. Her only suggestion would be to warn Elyon, but she already had that idea shot down twice so there didn't seem like a point to bring it back up again. But at the same time, her resolve remained firm; whether Elyon knew it or not, Cornelia would protect her with everything she had.

* * *

_Sheffield Institute – The Next Day_

Nearly all the students, and several teachers, looked around at the purple slime and damage to the school hallways and lockers from the Guardians and Chan Clan's fight against the Hermeneuta Beasts. As expected, Martin took pictures of nearly every inch of the area.

"Martin! In here! Quick! A purple ghost!" Uriah exclaimed as he pointed into a classroom. Martin wasted no time in running in, followed by a teacher, much to Uriah's shock. "No! Just Martin!"

But it was too late, the second Martin opened the door, the bucket of purple slime Uriah had set up over the door had fallen all over him and the teacher, causing them to slip before landing on the floor. The students all around laughed while an angry Martin, and an even more angry teacher, both stood up to glare at Uriah.

"You set this whole thing up, you… you cad!" Martin pointed at Uriah. "Uh, pardon my language, ladies." He quickly said to the girls present before resuming his glare at the bully.

"I didn't!" Uriah quickly said. "I mean, not the other stuff… just… just this…!"

However, nobody seemed to buy it. "Yeah, we should have known Uriah was behind the whole thing."

This seemed to work out better for our heroes as Jade, Taranee, and Irma shared knowing smirks as they saw the teacher escort Uriah to the principal's office.

"Well, that's our story." Taranee said. "Someone call a janitor."

"Yep, and Irma, one day the world will know about the dating sacrifice you made." Jade smirked, resulting in Irma scowling, or at least faking it. She had actually enjoyed the night out with Martin, but she wouldn't tell the others or else Jade and Cornelia would never let her hear the end of it.

* * *

Cedric heard a knock on the door for his 'borrowed' apartment and smirked as he had a good idea who it was. "Come in."

Elyon opened the door and entered. "Hi Cedric, thanks for inviting me." She said as she held up the letter, he sent her (via Shadowkhan). "You know, I don't think anyone ever sends invitations by mail anymore. They usually just text or send emails."

"Yes well, call me old fashion." Cedric replied. "Please come in, make yourself at home. Allow me to get you something to drink."

"Oh, you don't have to do that." Elyon said as she sat down on a chair.

"No, no, you're my guest, I insist." Cedric quickly said as he reached inside the fridge to pull out a bottle of grape soda. However, when Elyon wasn't looking, he took out the vile containing the counter-spell Daolon Wong had made and poured its contents into the bottle, where it dissolved instantly in the liquid. "I've been told that you like grape soda?" He offered the bottle to her.

"It's my favorite." Elyon said as she drank from the bottle, as well as the counter-spell in it, prompting Cedric to smirk. She looked out the window briefly before sighing. "I'm always, kinda sad after it rains."

"I know what you mean." Cedric replied.

"Hey, again, thanks so much for inviting me." Elyon began to confess. "I mean, Cornelia's supposed to be my best friend, but last night when I called, her mom said she went out with the other girls. I mean, she didn't even invite me."

Cedric hesitated for a second, but he placed a hand on her shoulder. However, unlike before, he wasn't stunned. It would seem the counter-spell had worked, the good chi-spell protecting Elyon was now gone. "One day, there will be those who really understand you."

"Well, I think you do." Elyon said as she finished her bottle of soda.

"I'm so pleased you feel that way." Cedric replied. "Here, I'll take that for you." He took the empty bottle away.

Cedric looked inside and saw that there was fog inside, so not only did he remove the protection spell around Elyon, he even acquired her breath, the final piece for the Ceremony of the Amalgamation. Even though he knew that Section 13 would likely track him here soon, as they were watching Elyon, it didn't matter if they did. He had all that he needed, and soon, Elyon will be in Meridian, in the clutches of the Forces of Darkness.

**Done. **

**So bad news for the heroes. Elyon is no longer protected by the chi-spell, and the villains have what they need to perform the Ceremony of the Amalgamation. Despite the efforts of the Guardians, Chan Clan, Section 13, even Uncle's repeated trolling and defiance toward Phobos and Wong, it seems all their efforts are for not as the next chapter is when everything hits the fan. **

**I look forward to seeing you soon, until then, stay safe and healthy out there. **


	17. Parent's Night

**Hi everyone, thanks again for waiting, I do appreciate your patience. This is the one chapter where it all hits the fan and our heroes suffer a major defeat. So, with nothing else needing to be said, let's get on with this update. **

**Parent's Night **

Captain Black knocked on the door to the apartment of Linda Carol. "Miss Carol, this is special organization Section 13, we need you to open the door." He said as he had five agents behind him. After watching Elyon come to this apartment yesterday, Captain Black was able to look up Linda's information and saw she had no relation at all with Elyon. Getting suspicious, he decided to go there and see if anything suspicious was going on. However, there was no response, and when Captain Black knocked on the door again, it opened, revealing it wasn't locked.

Keeping his hand inside his pocket and trained on his pistol, Captain Black motioned for his agents to be quiet as they slipped inside the apartment. Once inside, they saw that nobody appeared to be there. However, Black and his agents heard some commotion coming from a nearby closet. Black hung close to the wall, pulling out his pistol, expecting trouble as he quickly opened the door, only to find Linda Carol tied up and gagged as she looked with alarm in her eyes.

Captain Black was quick to release her bonds. "Miss Carol, I'm special agent Captain Black, everything's going to be okay."

"Thank you…" Linda Carol said with relief.

"Do you know who did this to you?" The Captain asked.

"A blonde man with glasses."

Captain Black reached into his coat to pull out a photograph of Cedric's disguise as Rick Hoffman. "Is this him?"

"Yes."

Black grimaced. "Damn it. We just missed him."

* * *

_Meridian – Phobos' Castle _

The dark prince himself, as well as his followers, Cedric and Daolon Wong, have all gathered in the throne room as they made the final preparations for the Ceremony of Amalgamation. Cedric had already provided Phobos with the empty soda bottle, which had a faint essence of Elyon's breath in it.

"Symbols of Elyon's mind, body, and spirit." Phobos stated as he poured the essence into the central orb, followed by Elyon's hair as well as her perfect math test. Once the lid was closed, all the ingredients began to mix together in a large cloud of sparkles before it cleared to reveal a golden crown with a red jewel in the center.

"The Ceremony of Amalgamation is now complete, my lord." Cedric stated. "According to the ancient ways, her resistance to crossing will now be lowered."

"And with that irksome protection spell no longer a problem, there is nothing to stop us from bringing the girl here." Wong sneered.

"For now." Phobos stated as he took out the crown. "With Chan and the Guardians being as persistent as ever, Elyon must now learn of her true identity as Princess of Meridian!"

"Miranda and I already have a plan set in motion." Cedric revealed.

Wong snorted. "That child? She's even more bothersome than you."

"You would be wise not to underestimate her, Daolon Wong." Cedric cast a slight glare in Wong's direction. "She's far craftier than you give her credit for."

"After the coronation, all her powers will be mine!" Phobos declared as he let loose an evil laugh that echoed throughout the throne room, however, neither he nor Cedric noticed the small smirk on Daolon Wong's face.

* * *

_Earth_

Elyon walked down the streets of Heatherfield, her intent was going to the bookstore where Cedric worked, only to be given a reminder as she not only saw it was just as damaged as she last saw it, but even saw police patrolling the area. She already had an idea that would still be the case, she couldn't quite explain it, but that was one of the few places she actually felt like she belonged, even more so than at home with her parents.

"It's a sad sight, isn't it?"

Elyon turned around to see a girl who looked just about her age with black hair and greenish-blue eyes.

"Cedric loved working there."

That took Elyon by surprise. "You know Cedric?"

"Yeah, I'm a… friend of his. My name is Miranda." She offered her hand for Elyon to shake, which she did.

"Oh, nice to meet you, I'm…"

"Elyon, Cedric's already told me a lot about you." Miranda said with a friendly smile.

"He has?" Elyon smiled widely. "So, where is he? I tried to stop by his apartment, but for some reason, the police were there."

"Yes, Cedric has had some people… trying to get to him. Very bad people." Miranda said as they began walking away from the bookstore.

Elyon did not expect to hear that. "Someone is trying hurt him?! Why?!"

"I don't know, he's a good man, I don't see a reason why they'd try to hurt him." Miranda replied. "But don't worry, he's safe. And I was kinda hopping that maybe we could… how do you say it? Hang out?"

Despite the surprising reveal, Elyon smiled as they continued to walk down the sidewalk. "Sure, any friend of Cedric's is a friend of mine."

"Hey, Elyon!" They both saw Cornelia walking in from around the corner, though she didn't quite expect to see this other girl with her. "Who's this?"

"Miranda." Elyon briefly introduced. "Could you excuse me for a minute?" She asked the black-haired girl.

"Sure thing." Miranda nodded as she saw Elyon and Cornelia walk off but gave a small scowl in their direction that neither of them noticed.

Cornelia noticed that Elyon didn't look all that happy to see her. "Is… is something wrong?"

"I called you last night, your mom said you were off with the other girls." Elyon said in a somewhat irritated tone.

"Oh um… we were doing some… Kung Fu training." Cornelia tried to come up with an excuse.

"Kung Fu? Since when do you know Kung Fu?" Elyon didn't seem all that convinced

"Since… Jade and her Uncle moved to town." Cornelia answered. "It's not like we're doing a secret group fun-project or anything."

"How come I've never been invited though?" Elyon asked.

"You wouldn't like it, Kung Fu is _a lot _harder than it looks, trust me." Cornelia confessed, actually being honest about it.

"Maybe you should have let _me_ decide that." Elyon stated. "I'll see you at school." She walked away to meet up with Miranda and they walked away. Cornelia wanted to go after her and tell her the whole truth, but she couldn't risk that with someone else being with her, so she decided to walk away and head to school in another direction.

Elyon sighed as she met up with Miranda. "Cornelia's supposed to be my best friend. Some time's it feels like Cedric was the only one who understands me, even more so than my own parents."

"Well, I know we just met and all, but I think I understand you Elyon." Miranda said with a fake sincere smile to hide the devious expression in her eyes. This was enough to make Elyon smile as they continued their walk.

* * *

_Brown Residence _

Jackie Chan, Uncle, Tohru, and Caleb walked up to Elyon's house as Jackie knocked on the door. Thomas and Elanor Brown were the ones to answer the door.

"Mr. and Mrs. Brown, my name is Jackie Chan." He introduced. "We need to talk about your daughter."

"Oh, is Elyon alright?" Elanor asked.

"Well you see um…" Jackie tried to find the right way to say it, but Uncle beat him to it, being as blunt as ever.

"We know Elyon is Princess of Meridian and brother is evil prince!" The elderly wizard stated, catching the couple by surprise.

The young rebel walked up next. "My name is Caleb, I'm the leader of the rebellion in Meridian. We're not trying to hurt Elyon, I promise."

"If anything, we seek her protection." Tohru quickly said.

Elyon's adoptive parents got a good look at Caleb and appeared to have recognized him. "You're Julian's son!" Thomas stated, catching Caleb by surprise.

"You knew my father?!"

"Yes, we were friends before Phobos…" Thomas didn't finish as he and his wife both realized the situation, they were now in. "Come on inside."

Once inside, Jackie and the others explained to Elyon's adoptive parents, who revealed their real names to be Alborn and Miriadel, everything that's been happening recently. Jackie revealed how he's been working with and training the new Guardians and helping to fight Phobos, while also telling them about everything in regard to Elyon.

"So, Phobos knows about Elyon?" Alborn asked with a grave expression.

"Yes, I'm afraid so." Jackie confirmed. "He already sent Cedric in an attempt to suede her."

"Though we were able to expose him and drive him away, Elyon still remains in danger." Tohru added. "We even attempted to place her under a protective spell, but Daolon Wong was able to derive a counter-spell and has likely given it to her already."

Alborn and Miriadel looked towards each other with concerned expressions. "So that explains it." Miriadel said. "Elyon has already starting to become more distant from us."

"The Forces of Darkness are taking hold." Uncle said in a somewhat dramatic tone. "And with the Ceremony of the Amalgamation likely complete, it may be only a matter of time for Elyon."

"It's not going to happen!" Caleb exclaimed. "If Phobos or his cronies tries to lay finger on Elyon, I'll snap their arms like twigs!"

"Caleb, you may have good intentions, but not everything requires blunt force as a solution." Jackie lightly chastised the rebel leader before turning to Elyon's adoptive parents. "Mr. and Mrs. Brown, for Elyon's sake, I think it might be best for you and your daughter to leave Heatherfield for the time being, at least until Phobos is defeated."

"We have friends in high places that can help." Tohru offered. "We might even be able to get you to leave town by tomorrow night if you wanted."

Miriadel sighed. "Mr. Chan, we appreciate your offer, but you don't understand how obsessive Phobos is. Even if we do leave this city, he'll try and follow us. Perhaps… it is time we tell her the truth."

"Yeah, right… that we're not human and she's from another world?" Alborn said in a somberly sarcastic tone.

"You did it to save her life, though." Caleb stated. "Maybe if we tell her right now, she… OW!" Caleb felt his forehead where Uncle delivered his dope-slap.

"We have been over this!" Uncle stated. "Not everyone can accept magic! If Elyon learns everything all at once, she'll panic which the Forces of Darkness can take full advantage of!"

"Perhaps we can find a way to tell her slowly?" Tohru offered.

"Unfortunately, Tohru, I don't believe we have that sort of luxury." Jackie said in a grave tone as the group was at a loss of what to do.

* * *

_Sheffield Institute _

"'Parent's Night, tomorrow.'" Taranee read an announcement on the board in the school's courtyard. "'Food, Art, fun, fun, fun.'"

"Yeah, parent's at school." Irma voiced in obvious sarcasm as she kicked a ball and bounced it from her knee to her head. "That sounds 'fun, fun, fun' to me." She kicked the ball toward Jade.

"I think I might bring Uncle along for that, if only to make things more 'interesting'." Jade said with a somewhat mischievous smirk.

"You mean you're hopping he slaps some of the teachers on their foreheads." Cornelia said.

"Yep." Jade smirked as she kicked the ball to Taranee who walked into the game.

"Okay, I'll admit, that be pretty fun to see." Irma smirked as Taranee kicked the ball to Hay Lin.

"Well I can't wait to show them my history report, and my science project, and the inside of my locker!" Hay Lin actually seemed genuinely excited as she kicked the ball to Cornelia.

"Mine will spend the whole night pushing back my hair and saying, 'why do you wanna hide that pretty face?'." Cornelia complained.

"Odd, I thought you'd _like _showing yourself off a bit." Jade joked, resulting in some of the other girls laughing.

"Ha, ha, very funny Jade." Cornelia grumbled as she kicked the ball toward Irma.

"You think _that's _embarrassing?" Irma questioned. "Try having your mom bring cookies with your name on them. Her pet-name from when you were a baby!" She kicked the ball to Hay Lin.

"Does 'Shmoopy-pants' fit on a cookie?" Hay Lin asked as she kicked the ball to Jade.

"Droopy-pants." Irma practically cried as Jade kicked the ball to Taranee.

"Yeah, you're right, that does sound kind of embarrassing." Jade commented, resulting in laughs from the other girls.

"You think you guys have problems?" Will walked onto the scene. "Check this out." She handed them a piece of paper.

"You still dot your I's with smiley-faces?" Cornelia questioned. "That is so summer of sixth grade!"

"I'm talking about the C on my math midterm!" Will pointed to her grade.

"That's actually a C+." Jade pointed out. "Just under a B, so I'd say that's pretty good."

"You don't know my mom." Will replied. "It might not be a D or anything to get me grounded, but you can expect a boring lecture."

"Still better than fighting magic ninjas and a psycho prince." Jade replied back.

Taranee noticed Elyon walking toward then. "Oh, Hi Elyon!" She waved, not only as a friendly gesture, but a subtle warning to the others to stop talking about magic for a minute. The others tried to wave and say hi, but she didn't seem interested.

"Don't let me interrupt you." Elyon said somewhat spitefully as she walked past them.

"We need to tell her!" Cornelia persisted. "Uncle's protective chi-spell is gone! The bad guys can get to her now!"

"Tell her what? That she's about to be kidnapped and brainwashed by a psycho brother she never even knew?" Jade questioned. "I love fighting magic as much as the next big hero, but even _I _would freak out at something like that."

"But…" The blonde tried to protest, but Will quickly spoke up.

"Cornelia, I want you to think long and hard about this." The redhead began. "If we drop everything on Elyon; that she's not only a magic princess, but also a target for the Forces of Darkness including an evil long-lost brother, a giant shapeshifting snake, a dark wizard who makes Voldemort look like a pacifist, and an army of evil magic ninjas, how do you think she'd react to all that?"

Cornelia tried to come up with a retort, but once she thought about it, the more she realized that if all that really was unloaded at once, especially with her life being in danger, she did see a scenario of her freaking out as a very real possibility.

"Exactly." Will took her silence as the answer she needed. "And her freaking out is exactly what the bad guys want. Jackie and Section 13 have it under control."

"Students! Students!" Mrs. Knickerbocker got their attention as she walked onto the scene with a box of supplies in her hands. "Local merchants have once again donated generously to our Parent's Night festivities. We got this darling assortment of paper cups from cup city." She presented some party-cups that looked like they were from a five-year-old's birthday party.

"Nothing says 'par-tay' like three-little-pigs cups." Irma muttered sarcastically.

"And a new student even suggested the idea of family-tree-charts!" Mrs. Knickerbocker continued as she handed each of the six girls a chart. "I want you all to fill them out with photos of your relatives."

"I'd rather shave my head and wear clown shoes to the prom." Cornelia muttered.

Even Jade sighed. "You know Uncle's gonna have a _field _day with this. He's always going about family-history. I might actually need more charts just to fill it all in."

However, Hay Lin actually seemed even more excited. "Wow! This is gonna be…!" However, once all the other girls shot her glares, she tried to squish her excitement down. "Only… a _little _fun."

As Mrs. Knickerbocker walked away, she handed a chart to Elyon who could only look at it with a sigh.

"Family tree charts huh?" Miranda suddenly appeared behind Elyon. "It was actually my idea. What do you think Elyon?"

"Oh… great." Elyon didn't appear all that excited.

"What's wrong?" Miranda asked.

"Nothing… it's just… I have to go. I'll see you later, Miranda." Elyon walked away, not noticing the sinister smile forming on Miranda's face.

'_Hook, line, and sinker.'_

* * *

_Later that Night – Brown Residence _

"Mom, Dad, how come the only photos on my family tree charts are just ours?" Elyon questioned as she saw her chart, true to her word, only pictures of her parents and herself where on there. "What about _your _parents? Or Rodger, Claudia, and Great Aunt Millicent? And how come these people have never visited us?"

"It's a small family…" Alborn tried to say. "Both our parents… are no longer with us, your mother and I were both only children."

"There was a fire, I think fifty years ago…" Miriadel also tried to come up with an excuse of her own. "Your Great Aunt Sylvia, she lost a lot of documents."

"And her car, and her phone?" Elyon questioned with skepticism. "You know what? Never mind! I get it! I'm just not worth the bother!" She left the kitchen while slamming the door behind her.

Miriadel sighed. "It seems Caleb, Mr. Chan, and the others were right, we're losing her. Maybe we should tell her the truth."

Alborn knew his wife was right. "Tomorrow. We'll talk to her tomorrow after Parent's night."

* * *

_The Next Day – Sheffield Institute _

It was Parent's Night at the school as rain poured down outside. Multiple billboards were scattered throughout the gymnasium where all the students' family tree charts were presented. However, the biggest one appeared to be Jade's family tree, as she accurately predicted, was filled to the brim with family members she didn't even know about. She was there, along with her parents, Uncle Jackie, Uncle himself, and so many other second cousins that she honestly lost track. Though she also insisted on putting Tohru in as an 'honorary' family member.

Will just happened to walk by as she saw Jade's chart. "Dang… talk about a big family."

"Blame Uncle." She pointed to the aforementioned old man who stood with her, Jackie, and Tohru.

"Knowing one's roots is very important." Uncle insisted.

In stark contrast to Jade's enormous chart, Elyon's own family tree chart still consisted of herself and her parents, much to Elyon's own disappointment.

"I think our family chart looks very nice." Miriadel said in an attempt to cheer up her adoptive daughter.

"Absolutely, less is more." Alborn seemed to agree.

"Yeah, it's not crowded up with a bunch of family members!" Elyon exclaimed before walking away. The Chan clan happened to overhear Elyon yelling, Jade decided to head off in that direction as Jackie, Uncle, and Tohru made eye-contact with Mr. and Mrs. Brown, along with Caleb as he hung around the gymnasium.

Elyon gave a sad sigh as she sat down on a stack of folded up mats. "What's got you feeling so gloomy?" Miranda walked up to Elyon and sat down next to her, neither of them noticing Jade hiding around the corner. She couldn't explain it, but something about this Miranda-girl felt rather off.

"All this family-talk is awful." Elyon confessed.

"Why do you say that?" Miranda asked.

"Because my parents won't even talk to me about it." Elyon stated. "They're so secretive and weird. It's like I don't even have a family."

Jade did not miss the glint in Miranda's eyes. "You know, it's actually funny you should mention that. Cedric said he found something you should see. Follow me." She led Elyon out of the gymnasium.

Jade gave a gasp once she heard Cedric's name. "Uh oh." She quickly ran back to her family. "Uncle Jackie, we got a problem; Cedric's here."

"What?!" Jackie exclaimed as he, Uncle, Tohru, and even Caleb looked in surprise. Both Alborn and Miriadel heard what Jade said and were more than a little startled themselves.

"Yeah, Elyon's going to see him right now!" Jade stated.

"Jade; you, Caleb, Tohru, and Uncle find Will and the others." Jackie quickly got serious. "I'll see what I can do." He quickly made his way toward the gymnasium's exit, followed by Alborn and Miriadel.

* * *

Miranda led Elyon up the stairs where they stopped on the middle-level to where Cedric, wearing an overcoat, was waiting for them. "Cedric, what are you doing here?" Elyon asked.

"Elyon, listen to me. Those people have been lying to you." Cedric began.

This only served to confuse the young girl. "'Those people'? What are you talking about?"

"I did some research." Cedric reached into his coat and pulled out a series of papers. "City records, everyone born in Heatherfield twelve years ago, on March thirteenth."

"My birthday, so?" Elyon asked as Cedric handed her the list of names. One quick look was enough for Elyon to look in complete and utter surprise. "I'm not on here! But I know I was born on that day!"

"Yes, you were, but not in Heatherfield." Miranda said.

"What are you saying? And why would my parents lie to me?" Elyon asked as they heard the doors from the lower floor open. One peek over the railing and Miranda could see the shadows of Alborn, Miriadel, and Jackie. As Cedric spoke to Elyon, Miranda snuck closer toward a shaded corner and spoke in a subtle whisper.

"_Deal with Chan but leave the other two alone." _A series of shadows moved on their own down the staircase, which went completely unnoticed by Elyon as Cedric kneeled down to her level.

"They lied about who you are and _what_ they are."

Back downstairs; Jackie, Alborn, and Miriadel continued to search for the girl. "Jade said they went this way." Jackie recalled.

"Elyon!" Miriadel tried to call to her. "Honey?!"

They suddenly stopped as they saw the shadows move along the walls and down toward the floor in front of them before the shadows rose and took the shape of five Shadowkhan.

"What…?!" Alborn exclaimed as Miriadel was more than a little shocked herself. "What are they…?!"

"Shadowkhan!" Jackie immediately took a marital art stance. "Find Elyon, I'll deal with this!"

Miriadel turned around and ran in the opposite direction as Jackie blocked and parried the punches and kicks from the Shadowkhan assailants.

However, right as Alborn and Miriadel turned the corner, they happened to run right into Cedric, who took out the Star of Threbe from his coat and shined it over the pair, to reveal their true forms, goblin-like creatures with long hair. This happened right in front of Elyon and Miranda, the former screamed as she hid behind Miranda who pretended to stand protectively in front of her.

* * *

Meanwhile, Will was in what appeared to be a parent-teacher conference between her mother and Mr. Collins. However, Jade quickly entered the classroom. "Excuse me! Sorry to bother you guys, Mr. Collins, Mrs. V, I gotta borrow Will real quick. Friend emergency!" She quickly pulled Will out of the classroom, much to Mrs. Vandom's and Collin's confusion.

* * *

Elyon clung to Miranda as she saw the true forms of her so-called parents before Cedric put the Star away, allowing them to assume their human forms, but not even that could hide away Elyon's trauma.

"What are you?!"

"Elyon, we brought you here to save your life!" Miriadel tried to tell her.

"You must understand, you needed protection from your brother…" Alborn also tried.

"I have a _brother_?!" Elyon exclaimed in shock.

"Elyon, you know we love you." Alborn said sincerely and desperately.

"Does she? Does she really know?" Miranda questioned, keeping up the façade. "Hard to believe someone who's lied to you your whole life."

"Miranda." Miriadel practically growled at seeing the deceitful girl.

Alborn turned around to face Cedric with an equally distrustful look. "Cedric, what have you told her?!"

"You guys know my parents?!" Elyon exclaimed.

"Don't listen to them!" Miriadel tried desperately to reach out to her adoptive daughter. "We don't want them to hurt you like they've hurt so many others!"

Elyon was quickly brought to tears, not knowing what to believe anymore. "_You're _the only ones who ever hurt me!" She ran out the doors in tears.

"Elyon, wait!" Miriadel tried to run after her, only for a quartet of Shadowkhan to emerge from the walls. They were quick to grab onto her and Alborn, despite their resistance, they were quickly subdued with their hands restrained behind their backs.

"Prince Phobos is so looking forward to seeing you two again." Cedric sneered.

Suddenly, the group was alerted to a flying Shadowkhan on the other side of the hall as it hit the wall and dispersed. Jackie, who already dealt with the Shadowkhan that were sicked on him, slid to a halt as he faced Cedric and Miranda.

"Let them go!" Jackie demanded as he made a Kung Fu stance.

"So, this is the infamous Jackie Chan." Miranda said with an evil sneer as she stepped forward. "Prince Phobos is making such a fuss over you, I'd like to see why." She was more than ready to attack, but Cedric held his hand out to keep her from advancing.

"As entertaining as that would be, I'm afraid we have other matters to attend to. So you'll have to excuse us, Mr. Chan." Cedric said casually as he, Miranda, and the captured Alborn and Miriadel vanished into the shadows with the Shadowkhan quartet, despite Jackie's best attempt to reach them.

Acting quickly, Jackie pulled out his cellphone and dialed a familiar number. "Captain Black, we have a situation! Cedric is at Sheffield! I need you and Section 13 to set up a barrier around his old bookstore now!"

* * *

Cornelia's mother pulled back on her daughter's hair, much to her embarrassment. "Cornelia, Cornelia, now why do you wanna hide that pretty face?"

"Mother." Cornelia groaned.

"Excuse me." Tohru walked to the family. "Mr. and Mrs. Hale, I need to speak with Cornelia rather urgently."

Cornelia also glanced out the window to see Elyon running outside and had a good idea that had to do with what Tohru wanted. "Sorry Mom, Dad, I'll be right back." She followed Tohru, leaving behind the confused parents.

* * *

"You told your parents I'm your _what_?!" Irma exclaimed in a harsh whisper to Martin.

"Oh, sorry. 'Girlfriend' isn't correct these days." Martin said. "'Significant other', or 'main squeeze', those will do to."

"Martin, it was just one lossy movie and an ice cream. Only _one _date." Irma said. "We didn't… OW!" She suddenly felt a familiar dope-slap on her forehead.

"Why are you talking about date? We have emergency now!" Uncle stated as he suddenly appeared and began to pull Irma away, much to the confusion of her parents, as well as Martin.

They were already in the hallway, where they met up with Will, Jade, Tohru, Cornelia, and Taranee. They now only had to wait for Hay Lin, whom Caleb was already bringing, practically by force.

"But… but they haven't seen my volcano!" Hay Lin complained.

* * *

Elyon was already outside in the rain with Cedric and Miranda as they began to tell her everything, or rather, everything that they _wanted _her to hear.

"It… it isn't true… it's just not… it can't be…" Elyon stuttered.

"Don't you understand how this explains everything, Elyon?" Miranda told her. "You weren't born in Heatherfield, or even Earth! You were born in the realm of Meridian, the same realm where Cedric and I are from. A beautiful and magical place."

"It's the reason I had to avoid Earth's authorities." Cedric also said. "I had to fake my Earth-identity so that I could find you."

"No… No… no, it's not possible…" Elyon was still in denial.

"We would never lie to you." Cedric said. "Once more, we cannot lie to Meridian's rightful princess."

That revelation was the equivalent of a bomb being dropped for Elyon. "What?! This morning I was a teenager with no friends, now I'm a _princess_?!"

"Elyon, you _do_ have friends." Miranda told her. "You have me and Cedric."

Cedric kneeled down to Elyon's level and put his hands on her shoulders. "And in Meridian, you'll have more than just friends. Family. A history! You have a brother who loves and misses you so very much. It's time you went home."

"Elyon!" Will called to her as she, Jackie, Jade, Irma, Cornelia, Tohru, Hay Lin, Taranee, Uncle, and Caleb all ran outside. "Don't believe anything these guys say!"

"Oh, and your so-called friends have known about this, all along." Cedric revealed to the girl.

"What?" Elyon questioned.

"It's true." Miranda confirmed. "They didn't want you to know about your true heritage. Ask them for yourself."

Elyon turned with a glare to the heroes. "When were you going to tell me?"

"I wanted to!" Cornelia replied. "Elyon, no matter what they've told you, Cedric and that Miranda-girl are not your friends!"

"They've been more like friends to me than you!" Elyon stated. "Why shouldn't I go to this Meridian?"

"Because the place is ruled by an evil psychotic nutjob!" Jade argued. "These guys are brainwashing you!"

"Elyon, they have abducted your parents and…" Jackie tried to reason.

"Those monsters back there were _not_ my parents!" Elyon exclaimed. "They lied to me my whole life! And it seems they're not the only ones!"

"Uncle, can't you cast some kind of spell to show Elyon what Cedric really looks like?" Hay Lin asked the elderly wizard.

"Uncle does not know shapeshifter reveal spell." Uncle replied.

"Come, Princess." Cedric was ready to lead her away.

"No, you don't! You threw me in a dungeon to rot!" Caleb charged right at the shapeshifter and tackled him to the ground. "Show your true nature, Cedric!" Cedric however kicked Caleb off him, when Caleb threw a punch out, Cedric was quick to catch it in the palm of his hand and began to squeeze. However, Tohru suddenly appeared behind Cedric, picked him up with one hand before throwing him hard to a wall.

"Stop it!" Elyon practically screamed, she was about to run and help when suddenly, three dozen Shadowkhan appeared from the ground and surrounded the whole group. Some began to surround the shocked Elyon as she looked more than a little frightened.

"Shadowkhan!" Jade exclaimed out of shock.

Will immediately took out the Heart of Kandrakar and said the magic words. **"Guardians Unite!" **She, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin underwent their flashy transformation to take up their form as WITCH.

"What… what are you…?" Elyon stuttered at seeing her friends transform like this. Immediately, they, as well as Jackie, Uncle, Tohru, Jade, and Caleb engaged in a battle against the many Shadowkhan. Will and Jackie engaged in hand-to-hand combat with them, along with Jade and Caleb. Tohru relied on his physical strength as Taranee shot threw fireballs from her hands. Cornelia raised slabs of concrete from the ground to throw them at the ninja-like assailants as Irma shot water from her hands, and Hay Lin blew a stream of air. Uncle took out his trusty blowfish and began to blast them with Chi-Magic. Despite the heroes' best efforts though, the Shadowkhan appeared to keep going. However, several of them also appeared to surround Elyon, who looked like she was ready to scream, but Miranda came to her 'defense'.

"Elyon, you have to run!" She exclaimed. "Go! We'll hold them off!"

Elyon, letting her fear take over, began to run away as it looked like the Shadowkhan were about to attack Miranda and Cedric as well. However, as Elyon hid around the corner of an alleyway, she couldn't stop herself from looking at the fight that was ensuing. As the Shadowkhan kept the heroes at bay, they also followed their instructions previously given to make it as though both Miranda and Cedric were being assaulted as well as they were pinned to the ground.

"Stop it! Get away from them!" Elyon tried to help the two people she considered to be her only friends, only to have four Shadowkhan blocking her path.

"Elyon!" Cedric called out in a façade of desperation. "You can keep them away! You know how!"

Letting her instincts take control, Elyon shot her hand at the Shadowkhan, unleashing a massive and powerful wave of magic that not only blew all the Shadowkhan away, but even sent the Guardians, Caleb, and the Chan Clan flying across the street. Even Tohru, who tried to stand his ground, was blown away. The street underneath her cracked, the lampposts were bent back, cars were flipped, windows were shattered, and a fire hydrant exploded. When the wave stopped, Elyon looked beyond shocked at what she just did.

"What was that?! Cedric, Miranda, what did I just do?!" Elyon questioned as the two picked themselves up.

"I'll tell you everything, but later. We have to go!" Cedric pulled Elyon away as they and Miranda left just as the heroes began to pick themselves up.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the remains of the bookstore, Captain Black and a squad of Section 13 agents continued to patrol the area, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious, particularly a massive snake in the form of a human.

"Evening Officers." They turned around to see Daolon Wong approaching them from a nearby alleyway. "Nice night, don't you think?"

Immediately, Captain Black and his agents drew their pistols and aimed at Wong, but he was quick to raise his scepter to ensnare them with dark magic and send them crashing into a wall in the alleyway he just emerged from. Daolon Wong looked down the street to see Cedric and Miranda running with Elyon in tow.

"So, those shapeshifters actually did it." Wong sneered. "Soon, the Heart of Meridian's power will be mine!" With a wave of his scepter, Daolon Wong vanished from the street just as Cedric, Elyon, and Miranda entered the broken remains of the bookstore.

"This is it Elyon, this is how we get to Meridian, our home. _Your _home." Miranda told her.

"But you have to be the one to decide, your majesty." Cedric kneeled to her once more. "We can't make this choice for you. Do you want to stay here? Or are you ready to go to your kingdom? To cross to Meridian?"

"I… I don't know…" Elyon had more than a little on her mind as all this felt like it came rushing in all at once. She grew up in Earth, she had friends and a family here, or rather, she thought she did. Turns out, her parents weren't really her parents, they weren't even human. In fact, her own friends had known who she really was and didn't even bother to tell her. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that she didn't have anything in this world to hold her back. She had a brother and a history in Meridian, and she was ready to take it all. "I'm ready."

Cedric stood up and pulled out a book of Meridian from a shelf, once he touched it, a bright yellow glow began to emanate from it, which soon began to engulf himself, Elyon and Miranda.

Captain Black and his agents had recovered to see the light emanating from the show just as WITCH, the Chan Clan, and Caleb all arrived. They all entered the shop with one desperate attempt to reach Elyon, but they were too late. With one final flash, the three of them were gone, leaving the shocked heroes to face defeat, realizing they might have just lost the war.

"Bad day." Jackie muttered in disappointment.

* * *

_Silver Dragon_

All the heroes, including Captain Black and Blunk, met up at the Silver Dragon with Yan Lin to tell her what had happened. Captain Black had just gotten off the phone.

"Nearly all of Heatherfield has been combed through, no sign of Cedric, this Miranda girl, or Elyon." Captain Black told the group. "We haven't even found Mr. and Mrs. Brown."

"Of course, you haven't." Uncle stated. "They've all gone to Meridian. Cedric and Miranda have Elyon and no further reason to stay on Earth."

"Seriously, we had freaking Section 13 watching Elyon, _and _put a protective chi-spell on her!" Jade stated. "But it still wasn't enough!"

"Jade, we all feel bad for what happened." Tohru said. "We did everything we could, but it would seem that it simply wasn't enough."

"I wanted her back in Meridian, but not in the hands of her vile brother!" Caleb stated as it appeared, he was putting most of the blame on himself.

"Blunk cheer up friends! Found tiny folding stool!" The Passling pulled out a pair of glasses and tried to sit on them, only for them to break. Realizing this didn't do anything to cheer anybody up, Blunk only sulked.

"Well, we all know who's fault this is!" Cornelia cast a glare in Will's direction.

"Cornelia…" Will muttered.

"What!? You're the one who wouldn't let me warn her!" Cornelia argued.

"Oh, and how would you have warned her?!" Jade argued back. "Would you walk right up to her face and tell her she's a princess and a sister of a total nutjob?!"

"This coming from the girl who's got a knack for sneaking off on magic adventures!" Cornelia exclaimed.

"That is enough!" Jackie exclaimed with a firm tone of finality before he turned to the blonde. "Cornelia, I'm sorry things didn't turn out the way we hoped. Really, I am. But casting blame on one another is not going to change what happened. We can't dwell on what went wrong, all we can do now is try to find a way to make it right."

"Jackie is correct." Yan Lin agreed. "If ever there was a time to all work together, it is now."

* * *

_Meridian – Phobos' Castle_

The dark prince smirked triumphantly, after so many years of battle against the Rebellion, and more recently, his repeated encounters against Jackie Chan and the Guardians, his sister was finally within his grasp. All he had to do was keep her close to his side until the time of the coronation, and he will have more power than he could ever dream.

"Prince Phobos, your sister." Cedric and Miranda, both dressed in regal clothing, presented the girl to their prince.

Phobos turned around with a façade of a loving smile. "Elyon? Is it… is it truly you? I've waited so long!" He approached her, kneeled to her level and embraced her.

Elyon herself was holding back tears of joy. "My brother… you're really my brother… I didn't know…"

"There, there, welcome to your kingdom. You're finally home." Phobos broke off from their embraced. "This is your family, _our _family" He showed her various portraits of men and women who were indeed their ancestors.

"All of them?" Elyon looked with excitement and emotions all across the hallway.

"Our ancestral line, yes." Phobos confirmed. "Come, let me give you the tour of our home." He began to lead her down the hall of their castle.

Elyon spotted a glass container filled with all kinds of plants that she didn't recognize. "What's this?"

"A terrarium." Phobos answered. "I keep it for the children of the staff."

"Miranda told me you were nice." Elyon smiled as they walked away.

* * *

_Earth – Silver Dragon_

Will held the Heart of Kandrakar over the magic map to try and find an active portal, however, none appeared; meaning there was no way to cross to Meridian and get to Elyon at the moment.

"Who knows what lies he's already told her! We can't just sit here!" Cornelia exclaimed.

"Cornelia, calm down." Jackie told her in a firm yet understanding tone. "I understand your concern, but until a portal opens, we cannot do anything."

"I'll make tea." Yan Lin proposed, hopping the drink would defuse the tension in the room.

* * *

_Meridian_

Phobos had just finished giving Elyon the tour of their castle, specifically the areas he wanted her to see, before finally ending it at the large map that showed the entire kingdom of Meridian.

"And these are the maps of every part of the kingdom. Your kingdom." Phobos showed her.

"It's all so wonderful, just like Cedric and Miranda said." Elyon said with a smile. "I can't believe they didn't want me to know about this."

"Elyon, there are those from Earth who don't have the best of intentions." Phobos told her. "Those who crave power and will do whatever it takes to obtain it. That is why we have the Veil to protect our people from such danger."

"It makes me so mad to think I could have been here all along." Elyon practically growled.

"You must release all that bottled anger." Phobos told her. "I'd like to try something, put your hand on the great map, here." He showed her a portion of the map. "Picture those you are most angry with and think of something peaceful to balance it, such as… the terrarium I showed you."

"What? Is this like… meditation?" Elyon asked.

"Yes, and a test of your powers of concentration." Phobos explained to her. "You have a great power inside you, Elyon."

"Back on Earth I… I tore up an entire street…" Elyon looked towards her hands with a nervous expression, but Phobos held both her hands as he looked at her with caring eyes.

"Do not fret, my sister. I will help you to control your power, so it does not control you." Phobos told her. "But we need to test it first. Think of your friends, and those nice plants."

Elyon did as her brother told her and placed her hand on the map. Pulsing waves began to spread throughout the entire map as Phobos smiled evilly. He doubted this could get rid of Chan and the Guardians, but it would help him to test the limits of Elyon's power.

* * *

_Earth_

A red X formed on the map. "There! A portal!" Hay Lin pointed to the map.

"Let's go!" Caleb exclaimed. No time to waste, the Guardians, along with Jackie, Jade, Uncle, Tohru, and even Captain Black and Blunk all ran out of the Silver Dragon, just as Yan Lin arrived with the tea. She took a glance at the map and saw the X change from red to green, causing her to look suspicious.

* * *

_Meridian_

After assuming their Guardian forms, the girls of WITCH, followed by the Chan Clan, Blunk, Caleb, and Captain Black had just emerged from the portal.

"Where are we?" Jade questioned, looking at all the large plants around the group. "Some kind of weird forest?"

"Um… this doesn't look like Meridian." Caleb said, not recognizing this particular area.

Blunk walked forward, only to slam face-first into what appeared to be an invisible wall.

"Whoa. An invisible wall?" Jade questioned as the group quickly made their way towards Blunk, where Captain Black lightly knocked his fist against the wall.

"No, it's glass." Captain Black identified.

"Glass?" Hay Lin questioned. "Why? To keep us out from somewhere?"

Taranee looked around at their surroundings and realized where they were. "Nuh uh, _in_. This is a giant terrarium!" It was true, the group was indeed trapped inside a terrarium, but not a giant one, it was a normal sized terrarium and they have all shrunk down to insect-size.

"I don't think we're in a _giant _terrarium, I think we shrunk!" Irma exclaimed.

Jackie groaned as he slid his hand down his face. "Not again."

"Why do I have a feeling we we've been set up?" Jade questioned.

Uncle suddenly felt an enormous chill go down his spine. Before anyone could ask if he was alright, a large shadow loomed over the entire terrarium as they saw the massive form of Daolon Wong laughing.

"Daolon Wong!" Tohru exclaimed as they all looked in shock.

"Good." Wong sneered. "You've allowed yourselves to fall right into our trap." He raised his staff and cast a quartet of dark smoke plums, which phased through the glass and into the terrarium. The smoke solidified to take the form of four demonic-like insects consisting of a spider, a praying mantis, a scorpion, and a moth.

"Aiya!" Uncle shouted.

"Oh man… I hate bugs!" Cornelia exclaimed as the group scattered with the monster-insects crawling or flying after them.

Hay Lin and Irma flew up to try and avoid the moth that snarled at them and spat a silk-like substance at them, which they both managed to avoid as it pressed against the glass. Irma thrusted her hands to send a plum of water at the insect, but the moth flapped its wings rapidly to create a gust of wind that sent the water back to Hay Lin and Irma and send them crashing to the ground.

Blunk ran as fast as he could to try and avoid the spider, but Jade was quick to run up and grab the Passling before she attempted to climb up a thorny plant with the spider in hot pursuit. However, their salvation came in the form of Jackie and Will as the Guardian flew down and carried Jackie before she threw him with her enhanced strength, giving Jackie a boost that added to his own flying kick in the spider's face to send it recoiling back. However, it was quick recover as it resumed its charge.

The scorpion thrusted its tail at Uncle, but Captain Black dove and tackled him out of the way just as the stinger impacted the ground. They each drew their respective blowfish and pistol as they shot chi-spells and bullets at it. Taranee landed next to them and threw a series of fireballs alongside them. This seemed to keep the scorpion at bay, but it wouldn't stop it as it attempted to shield itself with its claws before it lunged its tail at them.

Tohru backed up slightly as the praying mantis loomed over him. He charged forward just as it swung its spined-front legs at him, but Tohru was already under the mantis and began to push up on its body to knock it down onto the ground. Once it was down, Cornelia pressed her hand on the ground to create a series of roots which shot up and began to entangle the mantis and pin it down. Caleb had picked up a rock and attempted to smash the mantis' head with it, but the mantis proved stronger than everyone thought as it broke out of the roots and knocked back Tohru, Cornelia, and Caleb.

The heroes soon found themselves literally cornered at the glass end of the terrarium with the insects looming over them with deadly intent.

"Don't you have some kind of insect-repellant-spell or something?!" Cornelia questioned, only to receive a dope-slap from Uncle. "OW!"

"Uncle is chi-wizard, not exterminator!"

Jackie looked past the insects toward the top of the terrarium, where he spotted a twist-lid, which could lead to their escape. "Cornelia, create an earthquake! Hay Lin, Taranee, we need a vortex of air and fire! Now!"

No time to question, Cornelia used her powers to create at tremor which began to shake up the entire terrarium, and knock the mantis, spider, and scorpion off balance, while Hay Lin spun her body to create a massive tornado, which Taranee added her fire to in order to create a vortex of wind and flame to keep the moth at bay. With the insects distracted, the group made their way to the top with Will carrying Jade, Hay Lin carrying Uncle, Cornelia and Taranee both carried Tohru, and Irma carrying Blunk; Jackie, Caleb, and Captain Black climbed up on their own along the plants towards the top. However, the insects were still in hot pursuit of the group.

"Itsy bitsy and company are little too close for comfort!" Irma exclaimed.

Taranee and Cornelia briefly set Tohru down on a plant just as Taranee shot a fireball at several branches to send them tumbling down to knock the spider, scorpion, and mantis back. However, the moth continued to fly toward them, but Hay Lin was quick to blast it back with a powerful gust of wind from her mouth.

"Keep climbing! We're almost there!" Captain Black stated as the group made their way to the lid.

"It looks like a normal right-handed thread." Caleb said upon seeing the lock. "Try turning it clockwise."

"Push!" Will exclaimed as she, Tohru, Irma, Captain Black, Cornelia, and Jackie began pushing against the lid to turn it.

"You guys might wanna hurry!" Jade exclaimed as she saw the insects recover and began to fly or climb their way closer toward them, which Uncle and Taranee attempted to keep at bay with chi-blasts and fireballs respectively. "The bug-boy-band is right on top of us!"

"Technically spiders aren't bugs, their arachnids." Taranee corrected.

"Gee thanks, that makes me feel _so _much better!" Jade exclaimed in obvious sarcasm.

"Keep pushing!" Jackie exclaimed as the combined strength of himself, Captain Black, Tohru, Will, Irma, and Cornelia, who were joined by Caleb, was enough to push the lid slightly, turning it and loosening it before Hay Lin blew another powerful gust of wind from her mouth to blow the top off.

They immediately flew out of the terrarium, Will holding onto Jackie who carried Jade, Irma carrying Uncle and Captain Black, Taranee and Hay Lin carrying Tohru, and Cornelia carrying Caleb with Blunk riding on Tohru's shoulder. They found the window and quickly flew outside.

Daolon Wong watched them leave and made no attempt to stop them. "It doesn't matter. We have what we needed." He commented with an evil snicker.

* * *

The group made their way into the castle town and set down on a wooden staircase just outside a house. A man passed by after finishing his apple, which he threw away, however it almost ended up hitting the group of tiny heroes on accident.

"What?! You never heard of a giant trash can?!" Irma shouted; despite the fact the man couldn't hear him.

Will sighed. "Now that Phobos has Elyon on his side, everything will be harder."

"We must find a portal, go back to Earth, hope we return to normal-size once we cross over, and form a whole new strategy." Caleb said.

"You, do have a way for us to turn to normal, right gramps?" Captain Black asked Uncle.

"Simple reversal spell." Uncle dismissed. "Very easy to cast."

"Uh… guys!" Jade pointed upward where the group gave a gasp at seeing Alborn and Miriadel in chains, being escorted by a pair of guards, walk right past them.

"Elyon's parents." Taranee said in a grave tone.

Jackie sighed. "Phobos has already made his move. It would seem that our job has indeed gotten much harder."

* * *

_Earth_

The heroes were able to find a portal, and once they passed through to Earth, they did indeed return to normal size. Captain Black returned to Section 13 while Caleb followed Jackie, Uncle, and Tohru to Uncle's Rare Finds, where they would meet with Yan Lin to discuss their next move. Jade, Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin decided to spend the night at Will's place, if only to get some rest and acclimate about what just happened.

"Sorry mom, we're just not hungry." Will said as her mother brought a tray of sandwiches and food.

"Girls, whatever's bothering you, these teenage problems have a way of working themselves out." Mrs. Vandom told them in a sincere tone. "Think about something else. Like math?" She cast something of a joking glance toward Will before leaving the room.

"Teenage problems." Irma muttered. "Yeah, I'd give anything to have those back."

"For once, I completely agree with that." Jade commented.

**Done.**

**So yeah, bad news for our heroes, despite everything they've done, Elyon has learned about her true heritage and has been won over to Phobos' side. We've even been introduced to Miranda earlier than in the cannon. Let me briefly explain the use of the Shadowkhan in this story; Elyon was emotionally confused by the revelation that Cedric and Miranda hit her with, and her friends' reveal as Guardians didn't help either, so she didn't know what to think as the Shadowkhan appeared to attack everyone, even Cedric and Miranda (as they previously instructed while keeping the heroes at bay), and with her viewing them as the only friends she had, it made her act on instinct and attack everyone else. I hope that all makes sense. **

**Things are going to be even more difficult for our heroes going forward, even more so than in the cannon, as I plan to introduce a new antagonist relatively soon after the next few chapters. Until then, stay safe and stay healthy out there. **


	18. The Mudslugs

**Hi everyone, thanks again for your patience. So, now Elyon is sided with Phobos, under the impression that he's a good big brother, when she couldn't be further from the truth. I remember this being one part of Season 1 that most people (including me and my sister when we first watched it) didn't like, especially Elyon's attitude. But I intend to change things a bit to not only make it more unique for my story, but give Elyon a more believable (and hopefully, still likeable) personality and even a bit of a dynamic for her and Phobos, as you've seen, I've given him layers in my story. Things are going to be different from the cannon show as we go further, so with that being said, let's get started. **

**The Mudslugs. **

Meridian, while it was a kingdom that wasn't exactly the best for its citizens, due to the dark and depressing atmosphere set onto the castle town, the palace itself however appeared to have a different setting as Princess Elyon walked through the courtyard. Due to the illusionary spell set on her brother, she saw beautiful flower gardens, and adorable critters from squirrels, to chipmunks, and rabbits, and even several birds and butterflies.

Elyon herself, now clad in a royal light blue dress, was at Phobos' side near a fountain as she petted a few of the rabbits. "This place takes your breath away." She breathed in awe.

"I knew you'd love it." Phobos smiled as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"The castle, these gardens, I feel like I'm in a fairy tale." Elyon smiled.

"Sometimes fairy tales come true." Phobos said.

Elyon's smile faded, however. "I still can't understand why my so-called best friend wouldn't want to tell me about this amazing place. Or for the fact that all these years, I had a brother."

"It may not be entirely her fault, or your other friends' for that matter." Phobos said as his expression became serious.

"What do you mean?" Elyon asked with concern.

"Follow me, there is something you need to know." Phobos led his younger sister back into the castle.

* * *

_Earth – Sheffield Institute _

Cornelia was late for her science class but was still able to sneak to her desk without the teacher noticing. "What's going on?"

Uriah, who sat behind her, laughed mischievously. "Don't ya know? This afternoon, it's D-Day!"

"Huh?"

"Dissection Day." Alchemy said as she sat next to Jade. "It's all week."

"Ew!" Cornelia shivered in disgust.

"Yeah, I know the frog's dead and all, but I wouldn't trust Cornelia with _any_ type of blade." Jade smirked.

"Hey!" The blonde glared at Jade.

"Oh, you don't have to do it, alone." Alchemy told Cornelia. "You can work with your lab partner."

"But my lab partner was… _is_… Elyon…" Cornelia looked toward the empty seat next to her with a saddened expression.

"Wow, so is Elyon still on vacation?" Alchemy asked.

"Eh… yeah. She might even be gone for a while." Jade remarked.

"So, with no lab partner, I could probably skip it, right?" Cornelia asked before screaming as Uriah showed a handful of worms right to her, resulting in most of the class laughing.

"Uriah put that down! We don't start till period 3." The teacher told the bully as he went back to his seat.

Alchemy noticed how Will was sitting alone as well. "Will's partner is out sick today, you're probably gonna get paired up with her."

"I don't think so." Cornelia scowled as she crossed her arms and looked away.

'_Oh brother.' _Jade rolled her eyes in annoyance as Will couldn't help but look down in guilt, having heard the whole thing.

* * *

_Lunch Time_

Jade, Will, Irma, Hay Lin, and Taranee all sat at the table with their respective lunches as Cornelia walked up and slammed her food tray down on the table. "I have had it!"

Nearly all the girls were startled by Cornelia's outburst, save for Jade who glared in the blonde's direction, while Will just looked down even further.

"Cornelia, we all feel terrible about Elyon, but…" Taranee tried to reason with her.

"We thought we were protecting her." Will said. "We thought it would take the Forces of Darkness longer to find her."

"We even had a freaking government agency looking out for her." Irma added. "It's not like we we're the only ones."

"No, _you _thought that!" Cornelia exclaimed to Will directly. "I am sick of playing 'follow the leader!' My best friend is in the clutches of a psycho prince with his pet shapeshifter and an old evil wizard! Things we're going great until you came to this school!"

"Hey, Will tried her best, we all did!" Jade exclaimed. "Don't put all the blame on her!"

"Oh, I'm not." Cornelia replied. "I can also blame _you _and your family! Ever since you guys showed up, I've only had to worry about make-up and dates, not the freaking end of the world! It's no wonder you didn't have any real friends before!"

"Cornelia!" Hay Lin exclaimed in shock as Irma and even Taranee looked shocked at what she had just said.

"Oh yeah? Well it's real wonder that you even had any friends!" Jade argued back, standing up. "Little Miss. 'the whole world revolves around me'! News flashes: it's not about _you_! It's hard to believe Elyon was ever friends with somebody shallower than a kitty pool!"

"You call _me_ shallow?!" Cornelia yelled. "I'm not the one who plays around with magic just to have some fun!"

"At least when I do, I'm trying to help my friends and family!" Jade exclaimed. "As far as I can tell, you don't care about anyone other than yourself! Stop acting like you're the only victim here; you don't want anything to do with us, then just go! Nobody's forcing you to stay!"

"You know what?! Yeah! That's _exactly _what I'm gonna do!" Cornelia stated.

"What are you talking about?" Taranee asked in an unsure tone of voice.

"I'm over this!" Cornelia exclaimed. "I quit! Have somebody else fight the 'Forces of Darkness'! I'm done!" She took her tray and walked away.

"Fine go! Who needs you anyway?! Good riddance!" Jade shouted as Cornelia walked away. She turned to the other girls as Irma, Taranee, and Hay Lin gave her odd looks. "What? You guys aren't gonna tell me that she was being fare, it's not our fault Phobos is so crafty!"

Taranee sighed. "Jade, look, I didn't like Cornelia lashing out at us like that, especially with Will, but you weren't exactly nice to her either."

"Sure, she's snobbish and bossy, but all things considered, she's not a bad person." Irma added.

Jade sat down and drove her fork into some food. "She's never really liked any of this, so I say let her go. We're probably better off without her constantly complaining about something as stupid as a broken nail all the time."

"But it's not a broken nail this time, it's Elyon." Hay Lin said to Jade. "She and Cornelia have known each other since kindergarten, so of course she's gonna take it hard."

Jade said nothing as she just stuffed some more food in her mouth, all the while Will looked down even further, as if the guilt she was feeling had suddenly increased.

* * *

_Meridian _

Phobos had led Elyon into his throne room where not only Cedric and Miranda were waiting, but also Daolon Wong, all three of the bowed in the presence of the girl.

"Princess Elyon." Daolon Wong said. "A pleasure."

"Oh, I'm sorry but… who are you?" Elyon asked.

"Ah forgive me for not properly introducing myself. My name is Daolon Wong, I am the arch-mage of Meridian under your brother's service."

"Daolon Wong has been a valued member of my court alongside Cedric and Miranda." Phobos told his younger sister. "I'm sure he'll be able to help you in controlling your magic power."

Elyon smiled. "Well, nice to meet you Mr. Wong. But please just call me 'Elyon'."

"As you wish." Wong hid his malevolent smirk.

"So Elyon, what do you think of Meridian so far?" Miranda asked.

"Was it everything you'd hoped it would be?" Cedric asked as well.

"And then some, it's amazing here!" Elyon's smile only grew before it faded as she looked at her brother again. "But Phobos, what did you mean when you said it wasn't my friends' fault."

Phobos said nothing at first as he reached into his robe to pull out a handful of sand, which he threw to the ground and it began to twirl before forming an image of sorts. "This is how we are able to witness events that transpire beyond the veil." Phobos said as the image began to clear to reveal the moment from Parent's Night when Elyon saw her friends transform into their Guardians. "You have seen your friends undergo this transformation and display magical powers, correct?"

"Yeah? I still can't believe it." Elyon said. "My friends… have magic?!"

"Not exactly, my dear Elyon." Wong began to explain as he pointed to the glowing amulet around Will's neck. "Do you see that crystal? It is the source of their power, the Heart of Kandrakar. It allows them to undergo this transformation and obtain incredible magical powers."

"However, the crystal itself is made from dark magic." Cedric added. "Though it looks benevolent, the Heart of Kandrakar is sentient in a way. It draws in its victims with the promise of incredible power, however, once one is ensared by its magic, they become vessels to be controlled and manipulated. They believe themselves to be guardians of sorts, but really, they are nothing more than puppets of this evil force."

"So, Cornelia and the others are being… brainwashed?!" Elyon questioned in alarm, doubt changing to worry and fear for their safety.

"Yes, exactly." Miranda confirmed with a small sneer.

"Well, there's gotta be something we can do!" Elyon stated. "We can't just…"

"That's what we've been trying to do, Elyon." Phobos told his sister. "I have tried to take that accursed crystal away from them and set them free. However, not only do they possess powerful magic, but they are so entranced by the Heart's illusions that they truly believe what they are doing is right and are even willing to throw their lives on the line for their so-called cause." Elyon gasped at that thought. "But I promise, I _will _free your friends." Phobos vowed as he placed both his hands on her shoulders. "I'll do everything in my power to free them from this dark influence."

Though Elyon was still very concerned for her friends, her worry turned into relief. "Thank you so much." She wrapped her arms around her brother, which he returned briefly before standing up.

"This is getting rather depressing." Miranda said as she took Elyon's hand. "Why don't we explore more of the castle, take your mind off this."

"Yeah but…" Elyon was a bit unsure.

"Elyon, you don't have to worry." Miranda assured her. "Your brother knows what he's doing, all we can do is trust him."

That seemed to put Elyon at ease. "Okay, let's go." With that, Miranda led Elyon out of the throne room, leaving Phobos alone with Cedric and Wong as the dark chi wizard chuckled.

"You certainly have a way with words, my prince. I almost believe you myself." Daolon Wong sneered.

"Well, let us see how my sister's friends are handling their most recent loss, shall we?" Phobos said as he magically altered the image to see Will and Cornelia in their science class.

"…_You have to, it's twenty percent of our grade." _Will tried to reason with Cornelia as she handled a worm.

"_I don't do slimy." _Cornelia replied harshly.

"_Earth to Cornelia, this is an _earth_ worm, and you're the Earth _Guardian_." _Will whispered to her.

"_Duh to Will, not anymore!" _Cornelia said before walking away.

Cedric chuckled. "It does not seem as though they've taken it very well. They're divided, this may be our chance to be rid of them."

"Perhaps." Phobos smirked. "Wong, I want you to bring the blonde to me alive." He ordered the dark chi wizard. "It might make Elyon happy to know that we've 'liberated' at least one of her friends from the Heart's influence."

"As you wish." Wong sneered. "But what of the others? As well as that loathsome Chan?"

"Ah yes. It is rather unfortunate that the Rebellion had no further use for them and decided to 'cut off any loose ends' before we could rescue them in time." Phobos smirked with an evil chuckle.

"Then allow me to be the one who 'failed' to save them." Cedric smirked.

* * *

_Heatherfield _

Cornelia walked through the streets once school got out, no real destination in mind as she continued to listen to the music with her headphones. A large van pulled up near the street as she walked by.

"Cornelia!" Caleb called as he got out of the passenger seat, with Tohru struggling to get out of the driver's seat. The blonde stopped walking for a moment as she at least gave Caleb a chance to talk. "Look, about telling Elyon… maybe we were wrong not to tell her, people can be wrong. Me and the other rebels disagree, we fight, heck you know how often I've butted heads with Uncle, only for him to smack _my _head." He attempted a joke, but it didn't seem to work as Cornelia didn't respond. "But, no matter how many times we fight, we're all brothers and sisters in arms, we always got each other's backs, and we pull it together for the cause."

"Well I'm rebelling against this cause!" Cornelia stated.

"The people of Meridian need you!" Caleb tried.

"They have my best friend; they don't need me. No one does…" She finished off that last part on a sad note, but before she walked away, Tohru placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Cornelia, if you really want to leave, we won't stop you." The sumo began. "But, one of the hard truths about live, somethings are just outside of our control, it's nobody's fault, it's just how things are. We all tried our best, but it wasn't enough. Even if you feel that you're all alone right now, you do have friends who are willing to listen to you, that includes me."

Cornelia's façade of indifference faded slightly as she looked up to Tohru slightly. "Well, could you at least tell Jackie something for me?"

"Of course." Tohru nodded.

"Tell him, thanks for everything." Cornelia began. "He's a good guy, probably one of the best I've met. He helped make all this magic crap easier to process, but I can't come back. I'm sorry."

"I understand." Tohru said in acknowledgement, with disappointment lingering in his eyes as well.

"Same for you." Cornelia told Tohru before walking away. "You're a pretty good guy too, Tohru. Thanks for everything." With that, she walked across the street, leaving Tohru and Caleb alone as they looked at each other with concern.

* * *

_Uncle's Rare Finds_

Jade, Will, Irma, Taranee, and Hay Lin had arrived after school to tell Jackie and Uncle what had happened with Cornelia. Hay Lin also texted Yan Lin who arrived as well right as Tohru and Caleb returned.

"We just saw Cornelia." The young rebel informed. "She's hiding out, listening to girl music."

Jade scoffed. "Why am I not surprised?"

"She did say thanks for everything to you however, Jackie." Tohru told his friend. "Though she's unsure if she'll come back."

"I see." Jackie nodded in understanding.

"Oh, she just needs time." Yan Lin commented. "These things happen."

"Did you and your friends fight like this when you were a Guardian, Grandma?" Hay Lin asked.

Yan Lin's expression turned dim for a moment. "Yes, we have. Sometimes, even worse than what's happening right now, but when the chips were down were still able to come together."

'_Until we couldn't.' _Uncle didn't voice his thoughts aloud.

"Well what if the bad guys try something?" Irma questioned. "Just because Cornelia's in a fit doesn't mean they're gonna go easy on us."

"Well maybe we can just find a new Earth Guardian." Jade suggested, causing nearly everyone to look at her in surprise. "Oh, come on, don't tell me the thought didn't cross your minds! I mean, she quit! So, let's just hire someone else. Heck, why not make _me _a Guardian? I can… OW!" She felt her forehead where Uncle just delivered a dopeslap.

"That is now it works!" Uncle stated. "We cannot choose Guardian willy-nilly; we have no control over any of that!"

"Well if you guys got any other ideas, I'm all ears!" Jade threw her arms up in the air.

"But still, Irma brought up a reasonable point." Jackie said. "Phobos may have Elyon, but I doubt the fight is over." He looked towards Yan Lin. "Is it still possible for us to fight him and his forces without Cornelia? Please don't take this the wrong way, I am hopping she returns, but we have to be prepared if we are attacked and she is not here."

"I'm afraid not." Yan Lin replied. "The Guardians share a great burden, divided, your powers will be diminished."

"Well, we got two Chi-wizards right here, and a kick-butt martial artist who's taken on freaking demons!" Jade pointed out. "Not to mention we could borrow the Talismans again from Section 13. Couldn't that cover it or something?"

"No, it cannot." Uncle shook his head. "Guardians must unite! If Cornelia does not return soon, the powers shared from the Heart of Kandrakar will weaken and may become ineffective against the Forces of Darkness."

Will, who had said nothing during this entire conversation, simply stood up to walk out of the shop. The others looked in concern as Taranee sighed. "You know, as hard has Cornelia's taking it, I think Will's taking it even harder."

"I'll talk to her." Jackie said as he followed Will outside. "Will. Will!" He called to her as she stopped walking, allowing him to catch up with her. "Will, listen, this wasn't your fault."

"Yes, it was." Will said as she looked down. "It was my choice not to tell Elyon, I'm the leader so I gotta take responsibility, right? Well I screwed up! Cornelia was right, I'm a terrible leader! I might not be as close to Elyon as she is, but she's my friend to and it's my fault Phobos got her!" Tears were already welling up in her eyes. "It's my fault I lost a friend…"

"Will, look at me." Jackie put both his hands on her shoulders as he looked into her teary eyes. "This was _not _your fault. Yes, a leader has to take responsibility, but they also have to acknowledge that there are circumstances that are just simply outside our control. You did what you thought was right, and you did the best you could. It wasn't just you; we all did our best, even Captain Black and Section 13 did what they thought was right. But no matter what we try, or what we do, there will always be things outside our control. It's not how you never fail that's important, it's what you learn _by _failing that is. We learn from our mistakes and we pick ourselves up. I'm sure Cornelia understands to, but we have to let her come back at her own time. Until then, just know that there are people here who will help you, including me." He finished with a smile.

Will then wrapped her arms around Jackie and buried her face into his shoulder as she let some of her tears fall. Jackie simply embraced her back and let her air out all her pent-up frustrations.

* * *

_Meridian _

Cedric walked through what appeared to be a wasteland till he came before a large and deep pit. Once he made his way there, a series of shadows moved along the ground before a trio of kneeling Shadowkhan had appeared behind him. They each showed a series of hairs they acquired from Will, Irma, Taranee, Hay Lin, Cornelia, and Jackie, and even Tohru's. These hairs were acquired from the heroes during their scuffle back at Parent's Night.

The shapeshifter chuckled. "I had suspected the Guardians would have been hurt emotionally after we've acquired the princess, now is the time to pluck the fruit while it is ripe." He took all the hairs, except for Cornelia's, and held them over a pit. A growl was heard from underneath the pit, causing Cedric to sneer even more. "Yes, yes, my hungry one. Food will be provided." He dropped the hairs into the pit with an evil smile.

* * *

_Earth – Heatherfield_

Cornelia rang the doorbell to Alchemy's house as the girl answered it. "Hey, what's with the face?" Alchemy asked upon seeing Cornelia's saddened expression.

"Can I come in?" Cornelia asked, to which Alchemy allowed as she led her friend into her room and had her sit down on the bed.

"So, what is it? A breakup with a guy?"

"Something like that…" Cornelia muttered. "Alchemy, have you ever said anything… really hurtful? Or… you did something… like make a mistake and… yelled at someone for it…"

"Well, I have gotten into some fights with my parents before." Alchemy answered. "Was it something like that?"

"I… got into a fight with… some our friends and… things might have… escalated." Cornelia revealed with a twinge of guilt in her voice.

Alchemy's gave her friend a look of sympathy. "Well, I'm sure if you just say you're sorry…"

"But… I don't know if I can… at least not right now…" Cornelia muttered.

"Then, maybe you should just let things die down for a bit." Alchemy advised. "What do you say you just tune out the world and listen to real depressing music with me?"

A sad smile formed on Cornelia's face. "Yeah… that sounds nice."

* * *

At the same time; Jade, Will, Irma, Hay Lin, Taranee, and Caleb were all at Irma's house, in her room specifically, with a tray of cookies, which a certain Passling was helping himself to from underneath the bed.

"Well Will, you're the leader." Taranee told her. "There must be a way to get Cornelia back."

"You heard what Jackie said, we can't exactly force her to come back." Will said. "If she does, it's gotta be on her own."

"Uncle also said the Forces of Darkness aren't gonna wait for our little 'reunion', either." Jade pointed out. "But the first thing Cornelia's gotta do is apologize."

"Hey, Irma! Check this!" Chris barged into the room, covered in mud while also holding a jar.

"Chris, little brother rule number one: knock!" Irma told her younger brother as Blunk stuck his head out from under the bed to lick the mud from Chris' shoes. "Second thought, don't touch my door or anything else of mine till you get a bath!" She noticed the jar he was holding. "What have you got?"

"I was on my way home from t-ball, and there was this _huge _mud puddle!" Chris began, only just now noticing Blunk liking his shoes. "Hi smelly clown babysitter." He greeted before turning back to Irma. "I found these cool worms! I picked one up and…" He noticed something odd about the worm he got. "Hey, it wasn't this big before."

The girls got a good look at this 'worm' and saw that it was more than a little large, and even had some kind of mouth on its belly, causing all the girls to cringe in disgust, even Jade looked more than a little grossed out.

Blunk got a taste of the mud from the bottom of the jar. "Hmm, Meridian mud."

That got Caleb's attention. "Did you say Meridian?!" He looked out the window to see multiple large slugs emerging from the ground and making their way toward the house. "Meridian Mudslugs!"

"Saywhat?" Jade questioned as she and the others looked out the window. "I'm guessing these aren't like harmless banana slugs, right?"

"We have to leave here! Now!" Caleb exclaimed.

* * *

After getting a text from the girls, Jackie, Uncle, and Tohru arrived at a construction site via car where they met up with Will, Jade, Caleb, Irma, Hay Lin, and Taranee, along with Blunk who was using his noose to sniff out the nearest portal.

"We got your message." Jackie said as they all grouped up. "You said these slug things are from Meridian?"

"Yeah, Mudslugs." Caleb answered. "They're basically maneaters."

Jackie simply rolled his eyes. "At this point, nothing surprises me anymore."

"Portal found! Portal found!" Blunk exclaimed as they all entered the construction site to see the swirling portal still open.

"We found the portal, but where are the slugs?" Tohru questioned.

Almost on cue, one large Mudslug emerged from the ground in front of Taranee, who leapt into Tohru's arms almost on instinct. "Did I mention how much I hate bugs?"

Already, dozens of Mudslugs began to emerge from the ground, and they all appeared rather large to say the least, each one appeared the size of a human. Already, Uncle took out his blowfish and began to blast chi-spells to stun and blast them back, but there appeared too many as they were already surrounded.

"Are they coming toward us?! They don't even have eyes!" Will exclaimed.

"They don't need eyes." Caleb stated. "They're probably tracking us from our scent!"

"How the hell did they get our 'scent'!?" Irma questioned.

"We've scraped with Phobos and his goons so many times they probably got some of our hair something!" Jade assumed.

"We have to get them back through the portal, now!" Jackie stated.

"But Cornelia's in charge of earth!" Hay Lin stated.

"We can handle this; we just need to be a little creative." Will assumed.

"And I got creativity right here." Jade smirked as she brandished the Dragon Talisman to blast back the closest of the Mudslugs.

"Jade!? When did you get the Talismans?!" Jackie questioned in surprise.

"We made a pitstop at Section 13 and grabbed a few of them." Will said as she took out the Heart of Kandrakar. **"Guardians Unite!"**

* * *

Meanwhile, back at Alchemy's house, Cornelia continued to listen to the music and it honestly didn't make her feel any better. After having some time to calm down, she took the time to realize just how horrible she acted to her friends, especially toward Will and Jade. A part of her wanted to apologize, but not only was she stubborn, a part of her was worried that they wouldn't accept her apology.

However, the doorbell rang, prompting Alchemy to sit up from the bed. "I'll get it." She quickly made her way downstairs toward the front door and opened it. "Hi how can…" Alchemy's expression changed from friendly to that of surprise as she saw none other than Daolon Wong at her door.

Cornelia was already on her way down. "Hey, who's at the…" She soon gasped once she saw the dark wizard.

"My dear Cornelia, I request that you come with me." Daolon Wong said in a façade of politeness.

"Cornelia… you know this guy…?" Alchemy asked in confusion as just the appearance of this old man sent a chill down her spine.

The blonde said nothing as she had a blank look on her face, which she maintained as she simply walked toward the front door, which she closed and locked. "Time to go." She said as she began to lead Alchemy away from the door.

"What? What's going on? Who was….?"

"No time to talk, just walk and keep walking." Cornelia told her friend as they tried to get to the backdoor, only to look back in surprise at seeing the front door getting blown off the hinges, courtesy of Wong as he stepped inside with his scepter glowing menacingly. "On second thought, running's probably a better idea!"

Cornelia grabbed Alchemy's hand and ran out the backdoor as fast as she could, with Wong appearing outside not far behind. **"Gan! Ren! Chui!" **The Dark Chi Enforcers suddenly materialized out of blue smoke in front of their master. "After them!" With that command; Finn, Ratso, and Chow began to chase the two girls down the streets of the neighborhood.

* * *

Back at the construction site, the heroes did their best to fight the Mudslugs off. Jade used the Dragon and Rooster Talismans to hover in the air and shoot blasts at them along with Taranee who complemented her with her own fireballs; Uncle, Irma, and Hay Lin tried to blast chi-magic, water, and air respectively; Tohru used his own strength to punch and squish the Mudslugs with his feet, while also trying to throw them away. Jackie used the Rabbit Talisman to run and bash his way through many of the Mudslugs, while Caleb wielded the power of the Pig Talismans to shoot heat-beams from his eyes and keep the Mudslugs at a distance.

However, despite the heroes' best efforts, many of the Mudslugs were quick to adapt as they burrowed themselves into the ground to try and hide from the attacks that had already killed a few of their brethren.

"Can't you get rid of them with some fancy spell?" Irma asked Uncle, only to receive a dope-slap to her forehead. "OW!"

"Uncle has never dealt with Mudslugs before, no time to prepare proper spell!"

Taranee tried to fly down and shoot fire into one hole and flush the Mudslugs out, but she already noticed her fire was considerably weaker than before. "Miss Lin was right. Our powers aren't as strong since Cornelia quit."

Suddenly, multiple tentacles emerged from the ground behind her and ensared her ankle. However, before they could drag Cornelia underground, Jade flew down to blast them back with the Dragon Talisman as Jackie used the Rabbit Talisman's speed to zoom in and grab Taranee, bringing her to safety.

"Talismans still seem to work fine." Jade commented.

"Well unless you got a Talisman that can move the ground, I don't see how they're gonna help all that much." Irma commented.

"Maybe we can move the slugs themselves." Jackie got an idea. "Jade, use the Rooster Talisman to try and levitate the Mudslugs back into the portal."

"Okay, hang on." Jade tried to hover over the Mudslugs, but as she was about to brandish the Talisman of levitation, the creatures all burrowed back underground. "Oh, come on! Come on out you stupid slugs!" She levitated closer to the ground and aimed the Rooster Talisman down one hole to try and pull at least one slug out, but this appeared to be a trap as multiple Mudslugs emerged from the ground around her and ensared her with their tentacles.

"Jade!" Jackie exclaimed as he run at super speeds with the Rabbit Talisman to try and knock all the Mudslugs back, but it seems many more were about to rise from the ground and attempting to devour them both. This prompted Will, Taranee, Hay Lin, and Irma to fly in and grab both Jade and Jackie, pulling them to safety as Uncle and Caleb tried to blast back the slugs with chi-blasts and heat beam eyes. Tohru even picked up a roller machine used for construction and threw it at the slugs. Though he had squashed several, most of them had already burrowed their way back underground.

"Geeze, why are these things so hard to kill?!" Will questioned.

"Believe it or not, these things are the least of our worries." Caleb said. "They're just the babies."

"Babies?!" Jackie, Will, Jade, Irma, Hay Lin, Taranee, and even Tohru all exclaimed at the same time.

"Yeah, the mother slug sends her spawn to scout and hunt for food." Caleb explained. "When they find it, mama follows. Word has it, she's undefeatable."

"Rebel boy has never seen mother slug?" Uncle asked.

"No, I've only seen the babies." Caleb replied. "We've always tried to avoid the Mudslugs' territory for obvious reasons."

The group made their way from the construction site and back toward the street to regroup and come up with a plan. Most of the group looked at Will as she gave an annoyed sigh.

"Okay, fine I admit it!" The redhead said. "I wish Cornelia was here, I'm sure her Earth powers can get rid of these things."

"Yeah." Even Jade agreed. "I'd rather deal with her snobbish attitude than these oversized snails without shells."

Will was about to make the call, when Jackie felt a buzz in his pocket, which was revealed to be his own cell phone. "Hello?" He asked upon answering it. "Cornelia?" The others looked in surprise. "Wait what's going… What?! Where are you?! Alright, alright, calm down. We're on our way." He hung up as he addressed everyone else. "Cornelia and Alchemy are being attacked by Daolon Wong right now!"

"What?!" Everyone, minus Uncle, exclaimed at the same time.

"Well we gotta go help them!" Hay Lin exclaimed.

"If we leave, we risk the Mudslugs and their mother following us, which could put countless innocent people at risk." Caleb stated.

"Alright, alright." Jade stated. "I'll go help Cornelia."

"By yourself against Daolon Wong?!" Taranee questioned.

"No, not by herself, because I will be coming as well." Tohru volunteered.

"Yeah, so will I." Will said. "I can use the Heart to transform Cornelia, we'll take down Wong and be back here to send the slugs packing. Jackie, can you and the others keep these things contained till we get back?"

Jackie smiled at Will's strategic thinking. "Yes, I believe we can do that."

"Hold on, if Alchemy's with Cornelia, won't that mean she'll see us as Guardians?" Irma asked.

"We can worry about that later." Will stated. "Right now, we gotta help our friend… OW!" She felt a slap on her forehead curtsey of Uncle.

"Do not just stand there, get cracking!" Uncle exclaimed to the redhead, along with Jade and Tohru. "You must retrieve Cornelia so we may defeat Mudslugs! Hurry!"

Jackie gave Tohru the Rabbit Talisman as he used its superspeed to run alongside the flying Will and Jade, but not before Jade tossed Jackie the Dragon Talisman as they sped down the street to rescue their friends.

However, not long after they left, they heard Blunk screaming as they saw the Passling run from the construction site and crawl up on Jackie's back. "MAMA SLUG! MAMA SLUG!" Blunk screamed as the entire ground started to shake.

Jackie, Irma, Caleb, Taranee, Hay Lin, and even Uncle looked in shock and fear as the ground began to split open as the mother Mudslug revealed itself. Compared to all the infant man-sized slugs, she was enormous! Almost the same size as Gargoyle or even Jade after she used the growth spell.

"Um… I think we found Mama…" Caleb muttered.

"AIYA!" Uncle screamed with the girls.

"Bad day…" Jackie muttered with wide eyes.

* * *

Cornelia pulled Alchemy into an alleyway, the former looking out into the street to see if their pursuers were still there, but that did not appear to be the case. "Looks like we lost them."

"Cornelia what is going on?!" Alchemy looked like she was about to have a panic attack. "Who were those people?! Why are they after us?! What…"

"Alchemy, calm down." Cornelia put her hands on her friend's shoulders and tried to speak in a calm tone. "Look, it's a long story, and I'll tell you everything later. But right now, we just have to wait for help to come."

"Sorry kid, but help might not arrive soon enough." They heard Finn's voice from a fire-escape above them as he, Ratso, and Chow leapt down into the alleyway to surround them.

Chow was quick to try and grab Alchemy. "Hey! Let me go!"

"Get off her!" Cornelia ran to try and help her, but Finn barred her way as he grabbed her wrist, but Cornelia pulled it away as she ducked to the ground to deliver a roundhouse kick to knock Finn off his feet. But her own Kung Fu training wasn't enough as Ratso pulled her into a bear-hug, his own superior strength as a Dark Chi Warrior easily overpowering her.

Daolon Wong appeared in a puff of blue smoke in front of her with an evil laugh. "What is the old saying? United they stand, but divided they fall." He approached the struggling Cornelia as Finn and Chow kept a firm hold over Alchemy. "Do not fret, my dear. You will not suffer, Phobos merely wants you to act as a friend for Elyon during her transition as Meridian's princess."

"Elyon?" Alchemy asked in frightened confusion.

"Sorry, but I don't do brainwashing!" Cornelia exclaimed in defiance as she had a good idea that was what they had planned for her.

"You do not have a choice." Wong sneered as he opened his hand to reveal a serrated mouth in his palm. "But I'll have to remove that pesky power of yours first. It may not be the full power of the Heart of Kandrakar, but it should prove more than valuable to me."

"You want the Heart's power, jackass?!" Daolon Wong turned around in surprise to see a flying Will incoming. "Here it is!" She delivered a flying kick to his face to send Wong flying out into the street.

But it wasn't just Will, Jade also flew in to deliver her own flying kick to Ratso's face, forcing him to let go of Cornelia. And before either Finn or Chow could react, Tohru zoomed in at super speed and decked both of them to send them flying into Ratso and into the street, in the same direction their master was knocked into.

"Cornelia, are you alright?" Tohru asked as he helped her up.

"Yeah, thanks." Cornelia replied as Will and Jade set down to help Alchemy up, who was more than a little surprised at what just happened and how her friends were now.

"Will… what… are… are you some kind of… fairy?!" Alchemy stuttered. "And Jade… since when can you fly?!"

Both winced slightly. "Sorry, we'll give you the full explanation later." Will said. "But first things first." She took out the Heart of Kandrakar and shined it around Cornelia. She was engulfed in a green sphere of magic power before she was transformed into her Guardian form once more.

Though a part of her felt good to be in this form again, a part of her still felt a twinge of guilt over a great many things. "Guys, listen I…"

"Talk later!" Jade pointed back onto the street as Wong and his Dark Chi Enforcers had already recovered.

"Attack!" Wong ordered as his warriors brandished their weapons and led the charge.

"Take care of the warriors, I'll deal with Wong." Tohru said as he used the Rabbit Talisman's speed to zoom directly at Wong and deal a super-fast punch to knock the Dark Chi wizard back. Will, Jade, and Cornelia then flew and split up, forcing the Dark Chi Enforcers to separate and run in pursuit of their enemy, leaving Alchemy to watch in amazement from the alleyway.

Finn spun his bladed weapon at Jade and threw it like a shuriken at her, but thanks to the Rooster Talisman, Jade was able to fly high and avoid it. However, it tracked her almost like a homing missile, prompting Jade to use the telekinetic powers of the Rooster Talisman to pull up a garbage can and use it as a makeshift shield to block it, only for the weapon to tear through it and knock Jade back. She was forced on defense again as she attempted to hover and avoid the slashes from Finn as his weapon returned to him.

Will used her enhanced strength as a Guardian to try and block and parry the staff strikes from Chow, after ducking underneath one swing, Will dealt an uppercut to Chow's jaw and knock him into the air, where she flew up to deliver a flying roundhouse kick and knock him down hard onto the street. However, Chow was quick to get back up as his staff converted into a three-section staff, spinning it like a nunchuck, which he attempted to swing at Will, forcing her to fly away.

However, it would seem Cornelia actually had the upper hand against Ratso as she placed her hand on the street, allowing multiple plants and tendrils to shoot out towards Ratso, who tried to bat them away with his hammer. However, one of the plants was able to ensnare Ratso's hammer and pull it away before Ratso was also similarly ensnared. Cornelia turned around to see both Will and Jade appearing to be evenly matched against their respective opponents and got an idea.

"Hey Will! Jade! Heads up!" She motioned for her plants to throw Ratso toward them. Following her lead, Will ducked underneath Chow's staff-strike before she grabbed him by his shirt and threw him over her, using a double kick from her feet, while also hovering, to catapult Chow toward Ratso. While simultaneously, Jade shot over Finn and landed behind him, brandishing the Rooster Talisman to lift Finn telekinetically and likewise throw him in the same direction. All three Dark Chi Enforcers screamed as they collided into each other at high speeds, which was enough to poof and defeat them.

At the same time, Tohru used the speed from the Rabbit Talisman to avoid the many dark chi blasts from Daolon Wong as he sped around him, much to the dark chi wizard's irritation. The sumo suddenly appeared directly behind Daolon Wong and pulled him into a bearhug.

"This ends now, Daolon Wong!" Tohru stated.

However, the evil wizard actually sneered in response. "For once, we agree." With a cast of dark chi magic from his scepter, the ground underneath Tohru liquified, allowing him to sink into it like quicksand. When he was up to his neck, Wong used his magic to solidify the concrete and trap Tohru. "Foolish mortal." Wong mocked. "You cannot hope to defeat my powers with pure strength alone."

Suddenly, Wong was caught by surprise as his body was entangled by multiple plants that shot out from the ground underneath him. "To quote a certain old man… magic must defeat magic." Cornelia hovered above Wong with a smirk as Jade and Will hovered by her side. She the landed and glared at Wong into his eyes. "I want you to give Phobos a message from me. You tell him that I _am _going to get Elyon back. Even if I have to tear his entire castle to the ground to do it!"

Wong growled back. "Tell him yourself the next time you see him." He then used his scepter to vanish in a puff of dark blue smoke. With the enemy gone, Cornelia used her earth powers to free Tohru from his predicament, allowing him to stand on his two feet once more.

"Thank you, Cornelia." Tohru smiled.

"Hey, now we're even." She smiled back at him before looking to Will and Jade, her smile fading as her guilt began to set in. "Guys, listen I… I'm sorry I…"

Will put a hand on her shoulder before she could speak any further. "Look, I'm sure there's a lot that needs to be said, but right now our friends _really _need your help. So, let's save the drama until after we help them."

Cornelia understood as she nodded with a serious expression. "Got it."

"Hey, speaking of friends, what about her?" Jade pointed back toward the alleyway toward Alchemy who saw the entire fight and couldn't find the words as her face contorted an expression that seemed to mix surprise and amazement.

With a sigh, Cornelia quickly walked over to her friend. "Alchemy, I'm guessing you have a lot of questions for me right now."

"That doesn't even begin to cover it." Alchemy replied.

"Right." Cornelia said with a wince. "Like I said, I promise I'm going to tell you everything. But right now, I have to take care of something. You trust me, right?"

Despite the enormous surprise that pretty much blew up in the girl's face, Alchemy was still able to give a reassuring smile. "Of course, I trust you, Cornelia. You're one of my best friends. That's why I wanna come with you."

"Wait… what?!" Cornelia was more than a little shocked. "But we…"

"We don't have time to argue! We gotta go, just bring her with us!" Will stated.

"Right." Cornelia nodded as there was no time to waste. She picked up Alchemy as she flew alongside Will and Jade, with Tohru running after them with the speed of the Rabbit Talisman.

* * *

Back at the construction site, the mother Mudslug proved to be an enormous challenge for the remaining heroes just to keep at bay. They all tried to use long-ranged attacks with Jackie's fire blasts with the Dragon Talisman, Caleb's heat beam eyes from the Pig Talisman, Uncle's chi-blasts, as well as Taranee, Irma, and Hay Lin's respective elemental attacks. But no matter what they did, it only seemed to just dent the skin from the monster as it lashed out its tentacles at them. The three Guardians had an easier time avoiding it with their flight, as did Jackie and Caleb with their own agility, but Uncle was not so fortunate as he was ensared by one tentacle.

"Aiya!" Uncle screamed as he was pulled up by the mother Mudslug.

"Uncle!" Jackie exclaimed as he leapt on top of a small building and leapt from there to climb up the mother Mudslug's body. The creature tried to shake him off, but Hay Lin flew in front of its face, or what appeared to be its face, and blew a gust of wind to try and distract it. This appeared to work as Jackie was close enough to use the Dragon Talisman to blast the tentacle that had Uncle in its grip, forcing it to release the elder chi-wizard, where Taranee flew in to grab him before he could fall as Irma flew in to grab Jackie as well.

As they all regrouped, they appeared almost helpless as the mother Mudslug loomed over them.

"We can barely keep it contained!" Jackie stated.

"Where's Cornelia when you really need her?" Caleb said with a gulp.

"You called?" The aforementioned blonde said as she landed dramatically, with Will and Jade by her side. Tohru also zoomed along, after placing Alchemy gently down on the street away from the site as she could only look up in shock at the sight of the enormous mother Mudslug.

"Cornelia! You came back!" Hay Lin exclaimed with a smile as Caleb, Taranee, Irma, and even Jackie smiled at seeing her again, though Uncle remained stoic as ever.

"Of course, I couldn't let my friends down, could I?" She gave them a brief wink as she already got to work, placing both her hands on the ground and channeling as much control over earth as she could into the ground around the enormous mother Mudslug. A large circular crevice carved itself into the ground around the creature.

"She needs time! Distract it!" Will exclaimed as the group moved around the mother Mudslug to attack and divert its attention away from Cornelia.

"Hey mama-slug!" Jade flew right into its face and blew raspberries at it. The creature growled as it tried to lash its tentacles at her, but Jade was quick and agile enough to avoid most of them. However, when it looked like she was about to be overwhelmed, Taranee flew in and threw a fireball directly at the monster's face.

"Hey! Over here!" Caleb waved his hands to get the mother Mudslug's attention as he blasted its side with heat-beam eyes from the Pig Talisman and was quick to avoid a tentacle being lashed in his direction.

Tohru used the Rabbit Talisman's super speed to rush around the monster, while also giving Uncle a piggy-back ride as he blasted chi-magic at it, scoring multiple direct hits as Tohru's speed made it impossible for the mother Mudslug to fight back. Will and Jackie also opted a similar strategy as she carried Jackie up by his shirt, using her super strength while Jackie blasted the mother slug's head-area with fire from the Dragon Talisman.

Hay Lin and Irma flew alongside each other and joined hands, combining their respective elements to generate a surging sphere of water and wind, practically creating a storm in their hands, which they lashed out at the mother Mudslug from above, pinning it to the ground.

It would seem Cornelia was finally ready as she used her power over earth to actually lift the chunk of the ground that she severed, along with the mother Mudslug itself. Will, Jackie, Irma, Tohru, Uncle, Hay Lin, Taranee, and Caleb all looked in complete and utter surprise at Cornelia's power. Even Alchemy fell on her rear in amazement as her eyes wavered.

"Whoa…" Jade breathed.

However, it appeared Cornelia was having a hard time as the mother Mudslug struggled and began to knock away chucks of the rock it was trapped in, causing Cornelia to lose some form of control as this act was already strenuous enough for her. However, she also felt a second force grab onto the rock as well as the mother Mudslug itself and keep it from falling apart. She looked to her side in surprise to see the hovering Jade, using the telekinetic powers of the Rooster Talisman to provide some assistance.

"Hey… need some help…?" Jade asked with a smirk, despite the strain she was feeling herself in lifting something so large.

Though surprised, Cornelia soon smiled as she and Jade used their respective abilities to throw the trapped Mudslug straight into the portal. Once that was done, Cornelia was about to fall as her fatigue caught up to her, though Jade was able to catch her, she began to lose control over the levitation powers of the Rooster Talisman as well as due to her own fatigue.

Though Jade was still able to get herself and Cornelia to land safely on the ground, where all their friends were waiting for them. Caleb caught Cornelia and let her fall safely in her arms. Will acted quickly to use the Heart's power and seal the portal before joining everyone else.

"Jade… thanks." Cornelia smiled.

"No problem." Jade smiled back before it faded, and she rubbed the back of her head. "Listen I… I'm sorry I called you shallow…"

"No, I deserved it." Cornelia said as Caleb helped her stand on her feet. "I'm the one who should be saying sorry, to both of you." She spoke to Will and Jade directly. "I really wasn't mad at you guys, I was… more so mad at myself. Elyon was my best friend and I couldn't protect her. I was just lashing out you. It was unfair of me to do it, and I was wrong. I'm really, really sorry." She soon felt a familiar smack on her forehead. "OW!"

"Your actions placed all Guardians in danger!" Uncle chastised. "Guardians must remain united despite hardships or else they all suffer!"

"Uncle…" Jackie tried to speak.

"It's alright Jackie, I deserved that to." Cornelia accepted. "I'm really sorry. Forgive me?"

Will and Jade both looked towards each other with joking smiles. "Yeah, I think we'll let this one slide." Jade joked.

"Yeah, we're good." Will said as well. "As long as you can forgive me for not being a perfect leader."

"Well, I'd say you're pretty good at it." Cornelia smiled back as she pulled both Will and Jade into a hug, which was soon joined in by Irma, Taranee, and Hay Lin, even Caleb put a hand on her shoulder. Cornelia looked towards Jackie and Tohru, both smiled and nodded in approval. Even Uncle had his own smile.

"Oh man…" All eyes turned to see Alchemy who had a wide smile on her face. "THAT WAS TOTALLY WICKED! I mean… you were all flying… and shooting stuff… and lifting that giant monster! Are you guys superheroes?! Oh, this is so cool! My best friends are freaking SUPERHEORES!" She fell on her back with a smile on her face. "I love my life."

Most of the group winced with nervous chuckles. "Looks like we got a new supporting member for J-WITCH." Hay Lin commented.

"Yeah. I guess we… OW!" Cornelia felt another dope-slap from Uncle. "What now?"

"Identities as Guardians is to be kept secret! You can't tell friends willy-nilly!" Uncle chastised once more.

"Okay, I am sorry for being such a jerk earlier, but I'm not sorry with trying to protect my friend!" Cornelia stated as she glared at Uncle. "I did what I thought was right, and she had already saw the bad guys! So… take this!" She delivered her own dope-slap to Uncle's forehead.

"OW!" Uncle felt his forehead as the entire group looked in surprise.

"Did Cornelia just slap Uncle back?" Irma asked.

"Hmmm, mmm." Taranee nodded in conversation.

Jade snickered, however as she knew what was going to come next. "This should be good."

"Oooh, you will pay for that!" Uncle said as he dope-slapped Cornelia again.

"Ow!" Cornelia retaliated with her own dope-slap back at Uncle.

"Ow!" Uncle returned a dope-slap to Cornelia, who returned with one of her own, and so-on, and so-forth.

"Ow!"

"Ow!"

"Ow!"

"Ow!"

"Ow!"

"Ow!"

Despite this continuing non-stop, the group couldn't help but get a good laugh out of this as Blunk pulled himself out of the hole he was hiding in to watch as well with a laugh of his own.

Once Cornelia and Uncle were pulled apart, they and everyone else explained to Alchemy the whole story. They told her how Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin had been chosen as Guardians of the Veil to protect the Earth from the Forces of Darkness, while Jackie explained how he and his family had previous experience fighting evil as well. They also went into details about their current conflict against Phobos in Meridian, in which Caleb is the leader of the rebellion, and Elyon is in fact the true heir to Meridian's throne as Phobos' younger sister. Needless to say, it was all quite a surprise for her, but she promised she wouldn't tell anyone what she knows and even promised to help in getting Elyon back. Though they appreciated her willing to assist, they told that without magic abilities, there wasn't much she could do. However, Cornelia was able to convince Jackie to at least let Alchemy in on their Kung Fu lessons with him just in case she's accidentally pulled into another fight like with Daolon Wong, she can at least defend herself, which Jackie found acceptable.

* * *

_The next day_

Will was getting the stuff out of her locker, when Cornelia approached from behind. "Hey Will, listen…"

"If it's another apology, forget it." Will assured her. "I already told you, you don't have to worry."

"No, it's not that." Cornelia said. "It's just… well… Jade told me about what your so-called friends did to you at your old school before coming here to Heatherfield."

Will looked in surprise. "Oh, did she?" She wasn't exactly happy about the idea of Jade revealing something that personal to her, but since it was someone within their own social group, she might be willing to let that slide. "Well, don't worry about it. I know you wouldn't do anything like that, if that's what you're implying."

"Oh, I know." Cornelia replied. "I just wanted to say that if anybody here at Sheffield tries to give you a hard time, you just let me know." She smirked at her friend. "I'll humiliate them so hard, they'll _never _come within even five feet of you."

Though Will was quite surprised, she was also touched by how much Cornelia was willing to defend her. She smiled at someone she knew she could consider a friend. "Thanks."

"Guess what girls?!" Uriah suddenly appeared. "We're cutting open frogs today! Slimy, stretchy frogs!" He said with a laugh.

"_Oooooh!" _An ominous voice echoed through the area. _"Whhhhyyyy?" _Uriah turned around to look in complete horror at the sight of what appeared to be a hovering frog in the air. _"Why did you dissect me Uriah…? Why? Whhhhyyyy?!"_

Uriah screamed like a little girl. "GHOST FROG! GHOST FROG!" He screamed as he bolted down the hallway.

The ominous voice turned into a duet of laughter as Jade and Alchemy turned visible and the frog, revealed to be a stuffed animal, fell into their hands. "Did you see the look on his face?!" Alchemy said in-between laughs.

"Yeah…!" Jade laughed as well. "Pretty sure we just traumatized him for life!"

"I'm not complaining!" Alchemy laughed.

"Jade?!" Will questioned in surprise.

"Alchemy?!" Cornelia was equally surprised. "What did you just…?"

"Snake Talisman for invisibility." Jade brandished the aforementioned Talisman as Alchemy also held the Rooster Talisman.

"And hovering Rooster for extra special effects." Alchemy said with a chuckle.

"You stole those from Section 13?" Will questioned.

"Borrowed." Jade corrected. "And we'll give them back…"

"After we mess with the Grumpers later." Alchemy added with a smirk as she and Jade shared a high-five.

"Well, seems like these two are gonna get along just fine." Will said to Cornelia with her own smirk.

Despite Cornelia chuckling, she couldn't help but shake her head. "Oh god help us all." The four of them shared a laugh as they walked to their next class together.

**Done. **

**So, what did you guys think of this chapter? There are two important things to note from this.**

***Unlike in the cannon series, Elyon is not going to believe her friends are straight-up evil, rather that they are being controlled and corrupted by the Heart of Kandrakar (similar to the One Ring from "Lord of the Rings"). This feels easier to believe than simply thinking your friends have just turned evil. **

***Also, Alchemy is now aware of her friends' identities as J-WITCH and is going to have a more active role in this series going forward. She was supposed to gain such a role in the cannon Season 3 of WITCH, but since the show was cancelled, it never happened, but I plan to change that. Don't expect her to show up in EVERY single adventure with our heroes as she has no magic powers or anything, but she is going to help her friends in her own special way.**

**Up next, I've got a special chapter planed based off a certain episode from Jackie Chan Adventures and after that, I've got two more JCA episodes planned where we are introduced to a new antagonist. I'm sure you can already guess who it is. I'll see you soon with the next update, until then, stay safe and stay healthy. **


	19. Tohru Who?

**Hi everyone, thanks again for your patience. This is a fun little 'filler' episode of sorts for J-WITCH before we get back to the main narrative of Season 1. I hope the rest of you are staying safe and healthy in this pandemic we're facing and I'm hoping my updates manage to lift your spirits a bit. So, without further delay, let us begin. **

**Tohru Who? **

Tohru stood at the cash register of Uncle's Rare finds, minding the shop while his friends were all out. Seeing how there weren't any customers at the moment, Tohru helped himself to several boxes of cookies and cans of grape soda.

"Ah, grape and cookies." Tohru had a happy sigh as he bit down on cookie when he saw the shop door open. A mysterious man had walked into the shop, wearing a dark overcoat, a scarf covering the lower portion of his face and a hat covering the top area of said face.

"Good evening." The mysterious man greeted.

"Um, fudge nutty?" Tohru offered a cookie to the apparent customer.

"If you are on a break, perhaps someone else can assist me."

"I am the only one here." Tohru said. "What exactly are you looking for?"

"Something like this." The man reached into his coat to pull out a small object that resembled something of a totem-pole. "Note the unusual filioque." Tohru leaned in close to get a better look at it, but this allowed the man to spray an odd powder from the top of the device into Tohru's face, which quickly knocked the large sumo unconscious.

* * *

"Rise and shine, my boy!" Those words awoke Tohru as he laid on the bed of a run-down motel.

"Where am I? _Who _am I?" Tohru wondered as whatever he was sprayed with had caused him to lose his memories.

"You are Tohru, my most loyal henchman." The man from the shop removed his disguise to reveal the face of Valmont; and stepping out from the shadows behind him were Hak Foo and the Ice Crew, all five of them having evil smirks on their faces.

* * *

The group consisting of Jackie, Will, Jade, Irma, Uncle, Hay Lin, Cornelia, Taranee, Yan Lin, and Caleb were walking back to the Chan family's shop after having just finished a movie at the theater.

"Your Earth-movies are rather strange." Caleb pointed out.

"This coming from a rebel who fights the Forces of Darkness in another world most of his life." Cornelia cracked.

"Point taken." Caleb admitted.

"Yan Lin, Jackie, next time you take girls to movies by yourself!" Uncle complained.

"Oh boy, here we go." Irma rolled her eyes, totally expecting this from the elder chi-wizard.

"Ah Jin, you didn't complain so much when we used to watch plays when we were younger." Yan Lin said. "I seem to remember quite a few moments between us in the alleyway afterwards." She teased.

"Grandma!" Hay Lin exclaimed in surprise as some of the other girls cringed slightly.

"Plays had good quality." Uncle pointed out. "Modern-day movies leave much to be desired! Popcorn stale, sound too loud, and story unrealistic!"

Jackie had something of a laughing scoff. "You expected reality from 'Brain Draining Freaks of Planet Modula'?"

"Hey, I'm sleeping with nose-plugs tonight!" Jade stated. "No alien's getting it's mitts on my brain matter!"

"Pretty sure all that stinky garlic your uncle feeds you will keep the aliens away just fine." Will joked.

"Isn't that supposed to be vampires?" Taranee questioned.

"Lots of garlic is _good _for you!" Uncle pointed out. However, the group looked in surprise to see the door to the shop left partially open.

"Someone leave the door unlocked?" Will asked.

"I told Tohru never leave shop door open!" Uncle stated in annoyance. "Let mosquitoes in, air-conditioning out!"

"Hey Tohru, you missed out! It was a good one!" Hay Lin called to him, but they got no response and saw that nobody was in the shop.

"Tohru?" Jade wondered.

"Hello! Big T! are you here?" Irma called as Caleb and Cornelia went upstairs to check and see if he was present with Taranee looking in the back.

"How does a guy as big as him just up and vanish?" Will wondered.

"Well he's not in the back room." Taranee walked back into the shop.

"He's not upstairs either." Caleb said as he and Cornelia walked down.

"He probably just stepped out for a minute." Jackie assumed.

Hay Lin pulled out her cell phone. "Hang on, let me try and call him." She dialed his phone number, when the whole group heard a cell phone ring. They went over to the register to see that Tohru's cell phone had been left on the counter, which Cornelia picked up.

"Who goes out and just forgets their cell phone?" The blonde wondered.

"That is most strange." Yan Lin seemed to agree with concern.

Uncle also looked a tad worried. "Tohru would never leave without writing note."

Jade looked on the ground to see a half-eaten cookie. "And he would never leave a cookie uneaten." The entire group looked with worry as something bad might have happened to their friend.

* * *

"I am Valmont." The crime lord introduced to the amnesiac Tohru. "These are your associates; Hak Foo, StrikeMaster Ice, MC Cobra, and DJ Fist."

"Yeah dog, don't you remember us?" StrikeMaster Ice went with Valmont's act.

"I remember… nothing." Tohru said.

"Yo that potion thing's cool dawg." Cobra whispered to Fist, who nodded in agreement, only for them both to be shoved slightly by Hak Foo.

"Silence." The Black Tiger said in a hush whisper.

"It would seem that you are the victim of amnesia." Valmont said in a false sympathetic tone. "Allow me to fill in some blanks. I am the leader of the Dark Hand, a premiere crime syndicate, and you work for me, alongside your fellow comrades here." He gestured to Hak Foo and the Ice Crew who stood behind him.

"Uh… _premiere _crime syndicate?" Tohru asked, referring to the sorry state of the cheap motel they were currently staying in.

"A temporary set-back." Hak Foo stated.

"Yo we was living in the lap of luxury till Chan and his buddies wrecked us up." StrikeMaster Ice continued with the lie.

"Chan?" Tohru asked in confusion.

"Our nemesis." Valmont explained as he took out a scrap book filled with photos and old newspapers of Tohru's time in the Dark Hand a long time ago. "You see, it was only yesterday that we were at the top of our game. You even made the FBI's most wanted, three years running."

That seemed to convince Tohru. "Ah, so it _is_ true." He took the scrapbook to get a look at it himself. "But who is this Chan you claim to be our nemesis?"

"A man who has repeatedly thwarted many of our operations." Hak Foo answered as he showed Tohru a picture of Jackie in the scrapbook. "In fact, he is the reason we are in this predicament."

"Yo, he must have messed you up good to make you forget us big guy." MC Cobra said.

"He did this to me?" Tohru asked in surprise.

"Eh, yes he did." StrikeMaster Ice quickly came up with a story. "We tried to help you out big boy, but you were six feet in the dumpster when he was done with you."

Tohru growled in anger. "Chan will pay."

"In good time, loyal one. In good time." Valmont assured his 'henchman'. "But first, we have a very important flight to catch."

* * *

_Uncle's Rare Finds._

The group of heroes had gathered in the back of Uncle's shop as the elder chi wizard prepared a locator spell to find their missing friend. They had placed an unfinished can of grape soda inside Uncle's cauldron as it bubbled while he casted the spell.

"_Yu Mo Gwai Gui Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gwai Gui Fai Di Zao_." The can of grape soda had floated out of the cauldron, surrounded by a green aura as it shot to the world map on the wall, pointing out to Tohru's general location.

"Tohru, is there." Uncle pointed.

"Wait, isn't that India?" Will asked.

"Close, that's Sri Lanka." Taranee corrected. "It's in the Indian Ocean in Southern Asia."

"You know, I've always wanted to go to India." Hay Lin said. "Great food."

"Again, not India." Taranee reminded.

"But how the heck did Tohru end up on the other side of the world?" Cornelia questioned.

"I'm guessing it wasn't a vacation with his mom." Irma said sarcastically.

"Duh, big guy's been kidnapped! That's how!" Jade exclaimed as though it were obvious.

"But who would capture Tohru and why? Why take him and go to this Sri Lanka place?" Caleb wondered.

"We'll find out when we get there." Will said. "Let's bring our boy home."

"Will, I think you and the girls should best stay here." Jackie advised, much to their surprise.

"No way!" Irma exclaimed.

"Forget it!" Taranee also stated.

"We want to find Tohru to!" Hay Lin exclaimed as well.

"He's our friend just as much as he is yours." Cornelia said.

"Sorry Jackie, but we're going and you're not stopping us." Will said with crossed arms.

"I'm going to." Caleb also volunteered. "Tohru is a good person and I'd like to see him returned safely."

"Looks like it's unanimous." Jade said with a triumphant smirk.

Jackie looked as though he was about to protest when Yan Lin put a hand on his shoulder. "Jackie, go ahead and take them. They want to help their friend. More importantly, if the person who took him is dangerous, you may need some Guardian assistance."

"It's not just that. How do I tell their parents I'm taking them to the other side of the world?" Jackie voiced his concerns.

"Let me handle that." Yan Lin said with a smirk. "As a former Guardian myself, I'm quite the expert at making up believable excuses."

"Go grandma." Hay Lin smirked.

Though Jackie wasn't fond of lying, he understood Yan Lin's points and was glad to see all the girls willing to help their friend despite not knowing what predicament he was in. So, with a sigh, he conceded. "Very well."

"Yes!" Jade and Will exclaimed as all six girls shared a high-five.

"Do not just stand there, get cracking!" Uncle stated. "We must find Tohru! Hurry!"

"I'll call Captain Black and arrange a flight for us." Jackie was already on his phone.

* * *

Valmont led Hak Foo, the Ice Crew, and the amnesiac Tohru through the jungle-like area of Sri Lanka toward a temple, the leader of the Dark Hand dressed in a robe similar to that of a monk.

"Master, are there no closer banks for us to rob?" Tohru asked.

"Yo, robbing a bank is a whole lot harder than it looks." StrikeMaster Ice commented. "You get those dye-pacts in your eyes and it stings like hell."

"Agreed, and we have not traveled to Sri Lanka for any run-of-the-mill heist, Tohru." Valmont explained. "We are here for the score of a life-time! And the beauty of it, all we require is your muscle, the fighting prowess of our friends here…" Valmont referred to Hak Foo and the Ice Crew before continuing. "…Should our nemesis attempt to attack us, and the instructions to a secret location which we are soon to collect. Now, all of you, be on your best behavior."

"Yes, master." Tohru and Hak Foo said at the same time with DJ Fist nodding.

"Got it boss-man." MC Cobra also said.

It wasn't long before the disguised Valmont and his associates made their way to a small monastery where multiple monks and gurus were seen either working or meditating. The guru in charge addressed the disguised Valmont with a welcoming smile.

"Jandi! How my heart soars to see you again!" He greeted with a bow, a gesture the disguised Valmont returned.

"Master Balru. It pleases me to introduce my protegees who wish to seek enlightenment at your most humble monastery." Valmont introduced Tohru, Hak Foo, and the Ice-Crew.

"Ah, to Jandi is a brother to our monastery." Balru seemed to buy it as he welcomed them.

"Yo, this reminds me too much of the Zu Monastery in the Far East." StrikeMaster Ice whispered to his crew.

"I hear ya, I already don't like this place." MC Cobra agreed in a whisper but were silenced by Hak Foo lightly shoving them who gave them a hardened glare.

"Tohru, assume lotus position while Balru and I… catch up." Valmont told his largest associate.

"Yes, master." Tohru bowed as he walked away.

"The rest of you, assist him if he ever finds himself in any trouble." Valmont instructed the rest of his followers, who seemed to understand the subtle message he gave them.

"As you wish." Hak Foo bowed as they joined Tohru who could barely put himself in any sort of position, given his body shape.

"So Jandi, could it be could it be that you have finally returned to obtain true enrichment?" Balru asked as he and Valmont walked through the gardens.

"You have a way with words, Master Balru." Valmont 'confirmed'.

"Then, you shall be among the privileged few, the purest of spirit, who have communed at the legendary temple." Jandi said. "Your companions are also worthy?"

"Oh yes indeed, Tohru and the others each have great strength!" Valmont said, but quickly corrected himself. "Um… _inner _strength of a most spiritual nature."

"Then come." Balru gestured his 'friend' to follow him into the monastery. "Allow me to bestow upon you the directions to the Temple of the Golden Elephant." He failed to notice Valmont's evil smile.

* * *

After making it to Sri Lanka, Uncle held the grape-soda can that also served as the locator spell as he led the group consisting of Jackie, Will, Jade, Irma, Cornelia, Hay Lin, Taranee, and Caleb through the forest.

"Uncle, I'm parched! Can't we just drink it!?" Jade asked.

"We _are_ out of water." Jackie also pointed out.

"We can't, remember?" Taranee reminded them. "It's the locator spell that'll help us find Tohru."

"See? Taranee knows what she's talking about." Uncle gave an approved smile and a pat on the bespectacled girl's head before turning to everyone else. "Do the rest of you want to find Tohru? Yes? Then we must not drink locator spell!"

"Okay we get it." Irma said with a groan.

"But we could still use some more water, we've been walking for more than a few hours." Will pointed out.

"We probably get some water from that place." Hay Lin pointed to the monastery that came into view at the top of the hill. Once that hill was in sight, the locator spell around the can of soda began to glow even brighter, indicating they were close to Tohru's location. The group quickened the pace as they made their way up the hill.

Caleb noticed Cornelia had a look of sadness on her face and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I wouldn't worry, this is Tohru we're talking about. You know, the guy who could even toss Cedric like a rag doll."

"It's not that… I know Tohru can take care of himself." Cornelia said. "It's just… grape soda was Elyon's favorite drink to…"

A look of realization and sympathy fell on the young rebel's face. "Hey, we'll get Elyon back. I promise."

This did seem to comfort the blonde a little bit. "I know, but first, let's get the big guy back."

"Right." Caleb nodded as he and Cornelia ran to catch up with everyone else.

It didn't take long for the heroes to reach the monastery, entering through the main gate as many of the girls got a good look at the place.

"Wow, this place is beautiful." Hay Lin said with a smile.

"We'll go sight-seeing after we find Tohru." Will told her.

"Found him." Caleb pointed toward the side as the group turned to see Tohru still struggling to put himself in a lotus position.

"Tohru." Jackie said with relief, which was shared by everyone else, even Uncle.

"He is safe." The elder chi wizard smiled.

"Good, he really had us worried." Taranee smiled as well.

"What's he doing?" Jade asked.

"It would seem my apprentice seeks inner peace." Uncle assumed as he put the locator-spell/grape soda away. "So, I will give him piece… of Uncle for making us worry so sick!" He marched toward Tohru with Caleb and the girls following right behind him.

"And I will fetch us some water." Jackie said as he took his canteen toward the water source nearby.

"Hey! Tohru!" Hay Lin called as they were already at his spot.

"Where the heck have you been?! We were worried sick!" Irma voiced with concern.

"We came all the way to Sri Lanka to find you!" Jade said as she and Hay Lin tried to hug him.

"Remove yourselves, children!" Tohru told the two girls, surprising the group.

"Okay, what's with the attitude?" Cornelia said with crossed arms. "We crossed half the world to find you!"

"You are lousy shop-keeper!" Uncle scolded. "You leave without sweeping! Uncle could have slipped on crumbs and broken hip!"

"That's what you're concerned about?" Caleb questioned the elderly wizard.

"What are you jabbering about, old fool?" Tohru questioned, causing nearly everyone to gasp in shock and/or disbelief.

"Did he just…" Irma stuttered.

"Insult Uncle? I think he did." Will said in a shocked tone of voice.

Uncle's shocked expression became that of harsh anger. "You speak to your sensei that way?!" He marched over to Tohru and deliver a dope-slap to his head.

"Ow!" This angered Tohru enough to stand up and tower intimidatingly over Uncle.

"Tohru, what has gotten into you?" Taranee asked as she and the other girls, along with Caleb stood protectively in front of Uncle.

"You, know my name?" He asked in surprise, which only confused the group.

"Of course, we know your name, we're your friends!" Hay Lin stated as Jackie arrived, having filled his canteen.

"Uh, Jackie… I don't think Tohru recognizes us." Jade told her uncle.

"What? Oh, do not be silly Jade." Jackie didn't seem too convinced.

"Jackie _Chan_?" Tohru however _did _recognize Jackie, causing him to glare.

"See? Tohru knows exactly who I am." Jackie smiled.

"My nemesis!" Tohru exclaimed as he delivered a powerful punch toward Jackie, fortunately Will and Jade tackled him to the ground to avoid being hit while the rest of the group looked in absolute shock.

"What the hell?!" Irma exclaimed.

"AIYA!" Uncle practically screamed as Tohru continued to try and punch Jackie as he tried to dodge the punches.

"Tohru, it is me! Jackie!" He tried to remind his amnesiac friend.

"Yes! I know!" Tohru tried to charge Jackie, who rolled out of the way as Tohru accidentally plowed through the stone wall surrounding the whole monastery.

"Tohru! Come on! We're you friends! Don't you remember us?!" Hay Lin tried to plead to the recovering Tohru.

"Stand aside, girl!" Tohru shoved the shocked Hay Lin to the ground as he continued his pursuit of Jackie.

Will, Jade, and the others ran to help up Hay Lin as they saw Tohru continuing his attack on the shocked Jackie who continued to dodge. "Tohru, whatever I did to anger you, I am sorry!"

"What is happening? He's not acting like himself!" Caleb stated.

"Oh yes he is, his _old_ self." Jade recognized Tohru's old behavior.

"You mean when he was part of the Dark Hand?" Taranee asked.

"Indeed." A new voice confirmed as the group turned around in surprise to see Hak Foo, StrikeMaster Ice, DJ Fist, and MC Cobra standing behind them with evil smirks.

"It's tiger-boy and pizza face!" Irma exclaimed in surprise.

"The Dark Hand." Caleb glared.

"But if these guys are here then…" Cornelia was the first to put the pieces together, followed by everyone else as they came to the same realization.

"Valmont." Will's eyes narrowed. "Of course."

"They must of did something to Tohru to make him fall back on his old habits." Taranee assumed.

"Jade, you and Uncle help Jackie to try and jog Tohru's memory." Will told her. "The rest of us will handle these guys."

"You got it." Jade nodded as she and Uncle ran to assist Jackie, leaving the five girls and Caleb to face the four enemies.

"Yo, long time no see ladies." StrikeMaster Ice smirked. "Up for another game of ass-kicking?"

"We were just about to tell you that." Irma said as Will took out the Heart of Kandrakar and said the magic words.

"**Guardians Unite!" **With a bright flash, Will, Irma, Cornelia, Taranee and Hay Lin had transformed into WITCH, before rushing at their enemy, who charged directly at them in response.

* * *

Meanwhile, Valmont, still in his guru-disguise, was inside the monastery, receiving the directions to the Temple of the Golden Elephant.

"…Lastly, you will both emerge from the bamboo forest to find yourselves at the Lake of Riddles." Balru instructed, however he was interrupted by the sounds of vases being smashed outside. "Hmm, what was that?"

Valmont looked outside and was surprised to witness the battles between Tohru and Chan, as well as the Guardians with their magic powers against the martial arts skills of Hak Foo and the Ice Crew.

"A freak pottery accident." Valmont lied. "Frightful how they just spontaneously combust. Shall we press on then?"

"I will crush you!"

"Black Tiger plucks fairy wings"

"How about you eat dirt instead!"

The sounds of battle and insults being exchanged prompted Balru to look out the window, but Valmont blocked his view. "Jandi, what are you hiding? This is not the behavior of one who is prepared to visit the temple!"

"Which reminds me, left or right at the lake?" Valmont asked as he continued to block Balru.

"Across!" Balru stated, which was all the disguised crime lord needed to hear.

"Thank you, _master_." Valmont sneered as he reached into his robe to pull out the same potion, he used on Tohru. "And now that I have been 'enlightened' let us forget we've ever had this chat." He sprayed the potion into Balru's face, causing him to fall unconscious onto the ground.

* * *

Back outside, Irma and Hay Lin both flew and dodged to avoid the relentless punches from DJ Fist. As they tried to fly away, DJ Fist jumped to grab Hay Lin by her foot and throw her down to the ground. This seemed to irritate Irma as she telekinetically pulled all the water out from a nearby river and shot it directly at the surprised DJ Fist, the water itself taking the form of a fist as it sent DJ Fist crashing into a wall, which a pair of gurus were able to avoid.

"Sorry, we'll fix everything up later!" Hay Lin apologized.

Taranee, at the same time, found herself on the defense from several punches and kicks from MC Cobra, which she could barely block with her own martial arts before MC Cobra swiped his feet to knock her down, before he leapt into the air to deliver a flying kick to where her head would be. However, Taranee used her wings to slide back across the ground before MC Cobra's foot hit the ground. She then shot her fist forward for a point-blank fire attack, scoring a direct hit and sending MC Cobra flying into a nearby river.

"Hidden Viper Devours Butterfly!" Hak Foo launched an attack towards Cornelia, but she flew out of the way to avoid it. Caleb then tried to rush Hak Foo with a punch, but the Black Tiger was quick to catch Caleb's fist. "Gorilla Smashes Cage!" He dealt a powerful kick to Caleb's chest to send him skidding across the ground.

"Hey, I got one!" Cornelia stated in anger as she landed on the ground. "How about 'Black Tiger Falls of Mountain'!" She shot her hands to the ground, causing a small tremor before a large stone-fist shot out of the ground to punch Hak Foo and send him flying up before crashing on the ground hard, knocking him unconscious.

Meanwhile, Will seemed to be evenly matched with StrikeMaster Ice as she threw a punch at him, which he parried before swinging his foot at her, though she was able to fly above before dealing a powerful kick downwards, forcing Ice to back-flip and avoid the attack as he took a martial arts stance with a smirk.

"Ah hey Red, how ya been? You're looking as cool as ever." He teased.

"Nope, still not my type!" Will stated as she flew at Ice to deal a punch, which he limboed under to grab her by the foot, however, Will used this to her advantage as she flew up into the sky and spun her body around to send Ice flying and skidding across the ground once he let go.

At the same time, Jackie continued to run from Tohru as he back flipped his way toward a large bell as Jade and Uncle tried to catch up with them.

"It's time to jog Tohru's memory." Jade stated as she ran toward them as Jackie hid behind the bell with Tohru trying to find his way around it to get to Jackie. "Tohru, remember all those times we butt-whooped the Shadowkhan?"

"The who…?" Tohru questioned as he continued to pursue Jackie around the bell.

"Uh, okay, never mind them. Well, how about the time you helped me get over the crush I had on the kid in my class who was a demon?" Jade tried.

"There is no such thing as demons." Tohru stated as he continued to pursue Jackie.

"Well how about all the times we took on that royal dirtbag Phobos?" Jade still continued to try. "I mean, that's only been a few weeks ago!"

"I do not know a person named Phobos." Tohru replied, much to Jade's irritation.

Now it was Uncle's turn as he walked up with a can of grape soda in his hands. "Tohru, remember? Your favorite. Grape Soda."

"Grape what?" Tohru simply back handed the soda out of Uncle's hands, much to elder chi wizard's annoyance. Jackie rolled underneath the bell to try and get out of Tohru's reach as Jade quickly tried to run and bar his path.

"Tohru, stop this! Why are you acting like you work for the Dark Hand?!" Jade exclaimed.

"Because I _work _for the Dark Hand!" Tohru shouted back, causing Jade to gasp in shock.

"Then shame on you!" Jackie stated, causing Tohru to turn around as Jackie had pulled the bell back and let it go, causing it to slam into Tohru and send him literally rolling down the hill, bashing across multiple trees in the process.

Will and her fellow Guardians had flown onto the scene as Caleb had ran to join them as well. "Is he going to be okay?" Hay Lin asked with concern.

"I think he'll be fine." Taranee replied.

"Heh, just like old times." Jade commented, trying to find some form of humor in this otherwise shocking situation.

"Maybe that will knock some sense into him." Uncle stated.

"But how did it get knocked _out _of him in the first place?" Jackie asked.

"_He's_ how!" Irma pointed toward Valmont as he attempted to sneak away.

"Valmont!" Jackie and Uncle both stated at the same time.

The crime lord attempted to make a run for it, only for Cornelia to use her powers to grow a vine out of the ground and trip him up, causing him to fall onto the ground as he looked up in surprise to see all five Guardians hovering above him, each with their respective elemental powers at the ready.

"You just can't resist causing us trouble, can you?" Will said with a glare as Jackie, Caleb, Jade, and Uncle caught up and the entire group completely surrounded him.

"What have you done to Tohru?!" Jackie demanded as he took a martial arts stance.

"Hmm, last I saw, he was rolling down a hill. _You're _doing, I believe." He replied with a sneer.

"Stop playing games with us!" Caleb stated.

"Whatever you did to him, you're going to _undo _it, now!" Cornelia demanded.

"Yeah, tell us the truth, Fryer Liar!" Jade also demanded.

"Perhaps Tohru had enough of sweeping floors and decided to take a better offer." Valmont continued to play around. "Mine."

"Sweeping floors may be dirty work, but it is honest!" Uncle stated as the group had the crime lord literally backed against the wall.

"And he does so much more than just that!" Hay Lin added. "He's our friend and you are going to fix what you did to him!"

"Don't make us call his mom on you for another beat-down." Irma warned. "Because we _will_!"

"Tohru is one of the most good people we've ever met in our entire lives!" Will stated. "There's no way he'd go back to working for you again!"

"Oh?" Valmont asked with a smirk. "If you don't believe me, why don't you just ask _him_?" He pointed behind the group, toward Tohru who stood above them all. The group didn't react in time as Tohru dealt several powerful back-hands to knock each of them down onto the ground, be they Guardian or normal human.

Valmont walked towards Will as she was down on the ground. "I'll be taking that." He plucked the Heart of Kandrakar from around her neck.

"No!" Will tried to reach for it, but once it left her person, she along with her friends had lost their Guardian forms and turned back to normal. She was about to get back up, but StrikeMaster Ice had appeared behind her to pull her into a bear-hug. "Let me go!" She struggled in his grip.

It wasn't just her; the rest of the Ice Crew and Hak Foo had recovered as the Black Tiger had grabbed onto Cornelia, MC Cobra subdued Taranee, DJ Fist pulled both Irma and Hay Lin into a grip and Tohru was able to pull in Jackie, Jade, Caleb, and Uncle into a squeezing bear-hug.

"Tohru! Please don't do this!" Hay Lin tried to plead with him, but he didn't seem to listen as the villains walked with their captives toward a cellar.

"Don't listen to him!" Taranee also pleaded.

"Valmont's just using you!" Jade also tried.

"You will pay for this!" Uncle said to Valmont specifically as the crime lord opened the cellar door, allowing his henchmen to throw the heroes down inside. But that wasn't the end of their predicament. Before they had a chance to recover, Tohru had already grabbed a massive boulder and wedged it into the only entrance/exit, effectively trapping the heroes inside the cellar.

"Dark Hand, three; Jackie Chan and friends, zero." Valmont smirked.

"Yo know that really rocked!" MC Cobra joked as he, Ice and Fist shared a three-way high five.

"Come, my friends. It is time to collect our prize." Valmont said to his henchmen as they began to leave the monastery.

"Yes, master." Hak Foo and Tohru said at the same time as they left.

Inside the cellar; Jackie, Will, and Caleb tried to push the boulder out of the way. "Come on… budge you stupid…!" Will struggled.

"Eh, it's no good!" Caleb stated as they couldn't even get it to budge.

"Aiya! We are trapped!" Uncle exclaimed.

"Cornelia, can't you move it out of the way?" Taranee asked as the blonde had already stretched her hands out.

"What do you think I'm trying to do?!" Cornelia tried to use whatever control of earth she had to move the boulder, though she did manage to shake it a little, it wasn't enough to move it as she fell to her hands and knees in exhaustion. "It's no use, without the Heart, we don't have our full powers."

"Alright Jade, now might be a good time to whip out some Talismans." Irma said as Jade could only wince.

"Eh, I didn't bring any."

"What?!" Cornelia, Taranee, Will, Caleb, and Irma all exclaimed at the same time.

"What you didn't mean you didn't bring them?! You always swipe the Talismans!" Cornelia exclaimed.

"Hey, I was worried about Tohru, okay?!" Jade exclaimed before she sat down on the steps in grief. "We've lost him… for good…" She was already in tears, but Hay Lin and Will were among the first to sit down next to her and provide some comfort.

"No, we'll figure a way to get him back." Hay Lin told her friend.

"Tohru never gave up on any of us, we'll never give up on him." Will also said.

"We bring Tohru back Jade. I promise." Jackie told his niece.

"We'll find a way to return his memory even if we have to beat an antidote out of Valmont." Caleb stated as he punched his fist into his palm for emphasis.

"All the good that'll do if we can't get out of here." Cornelia pointed out.

"Hey, if a weasel like Valmont can crawl out from under a rock, we can to." Irma said.

Taranee tried to think. "Maybe, if we try to combine our powers… it might take a while, but maybe we can dig our way out of the boulder…?"

However, it would seem that Uncle already had a plan in mind as he sat down meditatively as he had a blow fish in front of him, chanting a chi-spell. _"Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao." _He cast a beam of green chi magic from his blowfish onto the boulder, causing everyone to smile as they believed they had found a way out.

"Uncle, are you using a levitation spell?" Taranee asked with a hopeful smile.

"Hmmp. Uncle cannot pack spell ingredients for every occasion!" The elder chi wizard stated, much to everyone's confusion, which turned into even further confusion as Will felt a drop of mud fall onto her coat, she and everyone else looked up in shock to see the boulder 'melting' into mud, which splattered all over them.

A pair of monks, who had gathered at the area outside, looked in surprise to not only see a boulder turn into mud before their very eyes, but even the group of heroes come out, completely covered in mud.

Jade gave an annoyed scoff. "Who says mud baths are relaxing?"

Cornelia looked more annoyed than anyone else as she appeared covered in the most amount of mud. "You owe me a free day at the salon after this!" The blonde pointed at Uncle, who responded with a dope-slap to her forehead. "Ow!"

"You wanted way out of cellar, Uncle provided!"

"Um, how about we fight after we save Tohru?" Will suggested as she promptly broke them up.

Jackie looked toward the pair of monks in front of them. "You wouldn't have happened to see where Tohru went?"

"A big guy, looks like a sumo, he's surrounded by a bunch of other crazy guys and a British scumbag?" Irma also described. "Pretty hard to miss."

A distressed cry caught everyone's attention as the group turned to see a monk helping Balru out of the monastery. "Master Balru has lost his memory!"

"Who is Balru?" The head guru asked in confusion.

"See?!" The monk stated.

"Whoa, this amnesia bug's really going around." Jade observed.

"Unless Valmont is responsible for both Tohru's memory vanishing as well as this person!" Caleb came to the realization first, followed by everyone else.

"Hotcha!" Uncle had just had an epiphany. "Valmont has used a potion on them! And with that potion, Uncle and Will can both bring back Tohru's memory."

"Wait… _me_?!" Will was more than a little surprised.

"Uncle can devise an antidote with the potion, but seeing as the potion is magic, you can use the Heart of Kandrakar." Uncle explained to Will.

"But I thought the Heart can only have us transform as Guardians and closing portals." Hay Lin recalled.

"The Heart of Kandrakar has many incredible powers." Uncle continued to explain. "Including the ability to absorb and utilize other forms of magic or magic items. If the Heart absorbs the portion into itself, it will have the power to repair the damage to Tohru's memory just as it can repair holes in the veil."

"So, we got a way to get Tohru's memory back!? Great!" Irma exclaimed with a smile that was shared by most of the group.

"There is still one issue, Valmont would have both the potion and the Heart with him." Jackie pointed out.

"So, we'll just have to find him." Caleb said.

"Oh, there is no hope of that!" The monk told the group as the amnesiac Balru looked around at the monastery. "The strangers have embarked for the Temple of the Golden Elephant, and only master Balru knows where it is!"

"Are you my mother?" The amnesiac Balru asked the monk, causing him to shake his head in distress.

"Ooooh, the temple's location is lost forever!"

"Oh?" Uncle had a smirk on his face as he pointed toward the can of grape soda on the ground that still had the locator spell active. "Can of grape soda tells Uncle otherwise."

* * *

Valmont continued to lead Tohru, Hak Foo, and the Ice Crew through the bamboo forest to their intended location. "Master, why didn't you tell me Jackie Chan had children under his command that could possess such strange powers?" Tohru asked, referring to the Guardians.

"I didn't feel it was necessary at the time." Valmont answered. "But don't you worry…" He took out the Heart of Kandrakar. "So long as we possess this, they will not be able to use their abilities again."

"So, what are we gonna do with that thing, boss-man?" StrikeMaster Ice asked.

"We should take the powers for ourselves." Hak Foo stated. "It turned defenseless children into powerful adversaries. That kind of power flowing through our veins… the veins of true warriors…!"

"Yo I don't wanna wear no skirt!" MC Cobra quickly said.

"No, we will not be utilizing this power." Valmont quickly said. "I've had more than enough experience with magic to last a lifetime. We'll sell this crystal with the Golden Elephant, nothing more." He said as the group made their way out of the forest. "And speaking of which, it appears we have arrived."

The group of villains had found themselves at the base of a boiling river with a large temple in the middle of it. "The Temple of the Golden Elephant." Hak Foo said almost dramatically.

"Yo, you had me at 'golden'." StrikeMaster Ice smirked.

Tohru was ready to cross the water, but once he set his foot in, he felt the hot temperatures of the water and immediately pulled his foot back in. "Ow!"

"Don't you recognize boiling water?" Valmont said as he rolled his eyes. "Now, how _do _we get across?"

Suddenly, a stone slab emerged from the water and presented itself to the group as magic writing appeared on the stone itself. "It is a riddle." Hak Foo read it aloud. "What do you call the life story of a car?"

"Hmm, now that's a tough one." MC Cobra tried to think with everyone else. "You know the answer Fist-boy?" He asked DJ Fist, who only shrugged.

"Uh… Cartoon?" Tohru guessed.

"Vehicular memoir?" Valmont guessed as well.

"Duh!" Jade suddenly stated as she, Jackie, Will, Caleb, Uncle, Irma, Hay Lin, Cornelia, and Taranee arrived onto the scene. "Auto-biography!"

That did appear to be the correct answer as multiple stone-slabs emerged from the boiling water, allowing the members of the Dark Hand entrance toward the temple. "I was about to say that." Valmont smirked. "Toodaloo!"

"Yo, thanks for the help, shrimp!" StrikeMaster Ice also smirked as the villains quickly made their way across.

"Oopsie." Jade winced, but the heroes were quick to give pursuit as Jackie was the first to run across the stone slabs. Unfortunately for him, the villains had already made their way toward the temple, and once the last of them was across, the slabs began to sink back into the water one-by-one, prompting Jackie to turn around and run back toward the riverbank.

"Jackie! Water very hot!" Uncle told him.

"I am not soaked yet!" Jackie exclaimed as he tried to run back.

Taranee soon noticed the slabs on the riverbank began to sink back into the water as well. "Uh oh… that's a problem!"

"He'll be like a boiled lobster!" Hay Lin exclaimed.

Caleb however got an idea as he quickly ran to grab a bamboo stick just as it looked like Jackie was about to reach a literal dead end. "Jackie, catch!" The young rebel threw the bamboo stick at Jackie, which he caught and used to pole-vault over the river and back towards the bank. He looked like he was about to fall back in, but Will and Cornelia quickly grabbed his arms and pulled him to safety.

"That was way too close." Cornelia said.

"How do we get across now?" Jackie wondered.

Will grunted in annoyance. "If I still had the Heart, we could transform and just fly across. OW!" She felt a dope-slap on her forehead, curtsey of Uncle.

"Did you not pay attention?!" Uncle stated as another stone-slab rose from the water to present another riddle to the heroes. "We must answer riddle."

"Shouldn't be too hard." Irma shrugged as Jackie read the riddle aloud.

"What is the beginning of eternity, the end of time and space, the beginning of every end, and the end of every place?" This riddle seemed to perplex group as neither of them had an answer for it right away.

"No fair! We got a brain-buster!" Jade complained with crossed arms.

* * *

Meanwhile, Valmont led Tohru, Hak Foo, and the Ice Crew into the temple, which was lined with multiple statues representing four-armed demon-like creatures, and at the center of the temple was their prize.

"At last…" Valmont smiled evilly. "My ticket to a life of luxury!"

The Golden Elephant was massive statue of an elephant that was almost as big as Tohru himself, and as the name suggested, it was made entirely out of gold.

StrikeMaster Ice whistled. "That's a lot of gold, dog!"

"We can buy so many cool sportscars with that!" MC Cobra smiled as DJ Fist had his own eager smile as well.

"And so few have seen it, it will never be missed." Valmont commented.

* * *

Back on the riverbank, the heroes had still yet to solve the riddle that laid before them. "The end of every place… the exit?" Jade guessed.

"But what about the beginning of eternity?" Will questioned. "Ugh, I hate riddles!" She slapped her hand against her forehead.

"So just because were like inter-dimensional guardians, we got a riddle that deals with the cosmos?!" Irma questioned.

"Well then let's just make a boat and sail across." Caleb suggested.

"That'll take way too long." Hay Lin said.

"Why can't riddles be so simple?" Cornelia complained. "Like, what color is the sky!?"

"Too easy. No challenge." Uncle stated.

"I wish this were the lake of crosswords, I am better at those." Jackie said.

"It's E!" Taranee stated as the group quickly looked toward the bespectacled girl as she sat on the ground, having written the words 'eternity', 'time', 'space', 'end', and 'place' on the sand with a stick. "We're overthinking it. At the beginning of the words 'eternity' and 'end', and at end of the words 'time', 'space' and 'place, is the letter E."

This did indeed prove to be the correct answer as a path of stone slabs arose from the river, allowing the heroes entrance towards the Temple of the Golden Elephant.

"Go Taranee." Jade smiled, along with everyone else, while Taranee had a triumphant smirk on her face, as they made their way across the boiling river.

* * *

Tohru, Hak Foo, and DJ Fist struggled to lift the massive Golden Elephant from its pedestal. "Come on big guys, lift with your legs. Your _legs_ dog!" StrikeMaster Ice stated.

"Be silent, unless you wish to lift this yourself!" Hak Foo replied as even DJ Fist shot Ice a glare.

"Enough arguments, just pack up that pachyderm so that we may be gone from this place!" Valmont exclaimed.

"Yes, master." Tohru said as the trio continued to try and lift the golden statue.

Meanwhile, Jackie, Uncle, Caleb, and all the girls had just entered the temple, but even upon entering, one look at all the statues around them was enough to send a chill down anyone's spine.

"Yeah, that's not creepy at all." Irma muttered as the group split up to hide behind two large pillars as they saw the villains still attempting to lift the statue, but they haven't even made it budge yet.

"Funny how the guy who can't remember is trying to steal the animal that never forgets." Jade commented.

"Yeah, that's hilarious." Caleb said sarcastically. "So, are we gonna stop them or what?"

"Stop Tohru!" Uncle called to his amnesiac apprentice, getting the attention of the Dark Hand agents and leader as the heroes stepped into the light. "If you remove the elephant, something very bad will happen!"

"Which would be?" Valmont asked, not entirely convinced.

"Hmmm." Uncle tried to think. "Do not recall. I'm expert in Chinese mythology, not Indian."

"But seriously, you guys don't see it?!" Cornelia exclaimed as she spoke to the villains directly. "I mean, there's an invaluable artifact sitting on a pedestal with no defenses around it whatsoever. You honestly don't think it's not booby trapped?! Haven't you guys watched 'Raiders of the Lost Arc'?!"

"I have." MC Cobra said. "Harrison Ford is the bomb, yo!"

"Really? He's my favorite old school actor to!" Hay Lin agreed.

"Not the time, Hay Lin." Will lightly scolded.

"Don't listen!" Valmont told Tohru. "Our enemies are just trying to trick you again." With that order; Tohru, DJ Fist, and Hak Foo continued their attempt and had managed to successfully lift the Golden Elephant from its pedestal. The second they did however, a powerful whirlwind blew through the entire temple, surprising all the heroes and villains present.

"Uh oh." Jade gulped.

"I tried to tell them." Cornelia said.

The group heard a series of growls as all the statues in the temple began to move, their eyes turned red almost like rubies as they had come to life. They all marched toward the center of the chamber, surrounding the heroes and villains as there appeared to be more than a dozen of them.

"Now I remember." Uncle stated. "Stone Sentinels will destroy whomever attempts to steal elephant."

Tohru especially gave a gasp as he was one of the ones who did attempt to steal said golden artifact. Though the heroes were literally caught in the middle, it seemed the villains were the Stone Sentinels' primary target.

"Well… at least it's not a boulder…" Taranee said nervously.

"Right cause living giant four-armed statues are _way _better than just an ordinary boulder." Irma replied with obvious sarcasm.

"I never touched it!" Valmont exclaimed as he attempted to find some cover.

"Tohru!" Will, Hay Lin, and Jade all exclaimed at the same time as Jackie and Caleb both ran forward to provide Tohru with assistance as two Stone Sentinels grabbed him and held him in a firm grip. However, as one attempted to punch Tohru, Jackie came in and grabbed it by it's arm, diverting it's attention as the sentinel gave chase to Jackie. At the same time, Caleb had leapt from a pillar and onto the head of one of the Sentinels holding Tohru, which distracted all of them, allowing Tohru to slip out of their grip.

"Yo, we ain't gonna let some stone dudes trip us up!" StrikeMaster Ice stated as he and his crew went on the attack. However, when DJ Fist attempted to punch the stone chest of the front-most Sentinel, he waved his hand in pain before he was slapped back. Ice and Cobra didn't fare any better as their attacks barley even damaged the Stone Sentinels, forcing them to run and find cover.

"Roaring Tiger Fist!" Hak Foo exclaimed as he tried to punch a Stone Sentinel's face, but like with his comrades, he barely scratched it as his hand felt great pain. "Crying Puppy Fist! Crying Puppy Fist!" Hak Foo waved his hand as he ran away from the Sentinel that attempted to stomp on him.

Tohru found himself cornered again by more Sentinels, however one of them felt a rock hit its head as it turned around to see Will with a rock in her hand, having been the one who thrown it. She wasn't alone as Irma, Cornelia, Hay Lin, and Taranee stood with her.

"Powers or not, we're not letting our friend get hurt." Will stated as the Sentinels turned their attention towards the girls.

"So, what's the plan fearless leader?" Cornelia asked.

"That's easy. Run!" Will replied as the five girls split off to divert the Sentinels away from the surprised Tohru.

"Hey Uncle, we could use that spell right now!" Taranee called to Uncle as he and Jade hid behind another pillar.

"Do you not listen!?" Uncle called back. "Uncle cannot make amnesia-antidote without amnesia-_potion_!"

Taranee tried to run around a pillar to lose the Stone Sentinel chasing her. "No! I mean the one where you turn rock into mud!"

"Ah, that Uncle can do." The chi-wizard nodded in understanding.

"And while you work your magic…" Jade muttered as she saw Valmont hiding around one pillar from the Sentinels. "…I'll motion for some potion and steal a certain heart while I'm at it."

Jade ran behind all the pillars as her friends and enemies each did what they could to try and avoid the crushing strikes from the Stone Sentinels as that appeared to be all they could do without any special powers. She appeared to sneak behind the pillar Valmont was next to without him noticing as she reached one hand towards the potion-device that he had in his coat pocket. However…

"Ha!" Valmont apparently saw it coming as he grabbed onto Jade's hand before she could get it. "The artful bungler." Jade still tried to pull it away, fighting Valmont for it.

"Hand it over!" Jade exclaimed as she tried to pull it away, while also reaching her other hand around Valmont's back for something else.

"Say pretty please!" Valmont stated as he didn't notice Jade reaching behind him, nor did they appear to notice Uncle walking toward Jade specifically.

"Did you see where Uncle put dried blowfish?" Uncle asked as he searched his bag. "Cannot complete spell without…" Unfortunately, Jade and Valmont's tussle for the potion led to an accidental spray to the elder chi wizard's face, causing him to fall flat on the ground.

"Uncle, are you okay?!" Jade asked urgently as she ran to his side. "Uncle?!"

"Uncle who?"

Jade gave a wince, realizing Uncle himself now had amnesia. "Oh boy."

"Serves you right, you old goat." Valmont mocked the old wizard.

"Ah, I am a goat." Uncle, now under the impression that he was on a goat, stood up on his hands and legs and made a 'Baah' noise.

"And it serves you right, for attempting to take something that doesn't belong to you." Valmont smirk at Jade.

However, Jade had a smirk of her own. "Oh yeah? What about something that wasn't yours in the first place." She held out her hand, revealing she had swiped back the Heart of Kandrakar, much to Valmont's shock. Jade saw a certain redhead cornered by a Stone Sentinel. "Will! Catch!"

"NO!" Valmont shouted as he saw the crystal fly through the air.

As Will saw the Heart flying towards her, she slid underneath the legs of the Stone Sentinel before sliding along the ground to grab the Heart before it hit the floor. Once it was in her hands again, she didn't waste a second. **"Guardians Unite!"**

Despite being scattered around the temple, Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin underwent their flashy transformation and appeared once more as WITCH as they hovered above the Stone Sentinels who had diverted their attention towards them.

"Ah yeah, we're back baby!" Irma smirked.

"Time for some redecorating." Cornelia rubbed her hands as the five girls shot down at the Sentinels. Irma, Taranee, and Hay Lin shot their respective elements of water, fire, and wind to knock back several Sentinels.

Two Stone Sentinels were about to get the drop on Jackie and Tohru as they came back-to-back, but Will had flown to the one in front of Tohru to deal a kick to the back of its head, causing it to tumble over the pair as they ducked underneath it, letting it crash into the other, resulting in them both shattering.

Will landed right next to Jackie and Tohru as they formed a three-way back-to-back circle in between three more Sentinels.

"The harder they are…" Jackie shared a smirk with Tohru.

"The bigger they break." The large sumo finished.

"Sounds like a plan." Will agreed as they scattered.

Jackie ran towards two Sentinels, jumping onto one that tried to grab him as the second attempted to punch him, only to result in the second Sentinel punching the head off the first as Jackie jumped onto the second one, resulting in another act of 'friendly fire' from the previous Sentinel as they both fell over.

One Sentinel attempted to punch Tohru, but he ducked underneath it's swing and picked it up with his sheer strength and threw into another Sentinel to shatter both.

"Hey over here!" Will waved her hands, hovering in-between two Sentinels to get their attention. She let herself fall as they both tried to punch her, only to result in them destroying each other.

The other Guardians followed a similar lead as Hay Lin and Irma stood together to face three charging Sentinels. Both the Water and Air Guardians nodded to each other as they combined their powers together into a large sphere of surging water-winds, almost like a storm formed in-between their hands, which they threw at the charging Stone Sentinels, though the attack itself didn't damage them, it blew all three back towards a pillar as the Sentinel in back was crushed by the one in front of it before that one ended up being crushed as well by the one previously up front, and even that one did not come out unscathed as it's back fell apart.

Taranee twirled her hands to produce two large flames which she telekinetically controlled to throw out and float in front of the faces of two Sentinels, who attempted to chase the flames that Taranee controlled, as they seemed drawn to it like a moth to a light. She brought her flames together in between the two Sentinels as they ran into each other, resulting in them shattering.

Caleb found himself cornered by the last four Stone Sentinels and he was more than ready to fight them. However, that proved to be unnecessary as Cornelia hovered in front of them and held her hand out to say one word. "Stop."

The Sentinels did just that as they stopped in their tracks, much to Caleb's surprise as Cornelia smiled. "Now, raise your hands above your heads." The four Sentinels did as they were told. "Whoa… didn't think that would work." Cornelia seemed surprised even of herself.

"Uh Cornelia, what did you do?" Caleb asked.

"Well, they're _Stone _Sentinels, and since I'm the _Earth _Guardian…" She explained.

"Oh, I get it. So, they're puppets." Caleb smiled.

"Got that right." Cornelia said as she looked in the direction of the exit to see Hak Foo, StrikeMaster Ice, DJ Fist, and MC Cobra attempting to sneak away. She smirked as she addressed her new 'puppets'. "Hey boys, be good little sentinels and go get those bad guys for me." She motioned her hands to charge at the four enemies, resulting in the Stone Sentinels running towards the shocked villains. They attempted to make a run for it but didn't get very far as the Sentinels surrounded them. Each Stone Sentinel picked up one of the villains in the form of a bear hug.

"Yo this ain't fair, hommie!" MC Cobra complained.

"We didn't sign up for this, dog!" StrikeMaster Ice also complained as the four Dark Hand agents were effectively trapped.

"You guys should have thought of that before you decided to join Valmont." Caleb said with crossed arms as Cornelia flew down to his side and put an arm around his shoulder.

"Now, keep those guys pinned but don't crush them. You got it? Good Sentinels." Cornelia told the Sentinels as they stood in place to keep a firm hold of their captives.

Jade gave a half-smirk with a raised eyebrow as Irma flew down next to her to witness the event. "Should have known she'd try that." Jade cracked.

"Yeah, that girl never misses a chance to act like a queen." Irma joked as well.

"Is that all of them?" Jackie asked as he, Will, Hay Lin, and Taranee regrouped.

"Aside from Cornelia's new 'entourage', Yeah, I think so." Hay Lin seemed to agree.

Valmont tried to sneak behind Tohru as he whispered to his so-called henchman. "Pssst, Tohru. Let's collect our prize now that they are distracted."

However, Tohru turned around to face Valmont with a glare. "No."

"Huh?!" Will, Jackie, Jade, Cornelia, and Caleb all voiced in surprise, while Hay Lin, Irma, and Taranee shared hopeful smiles.

But none appeared more surprised than Valmont. "What do you mean, 'no'?!"

"You were not so loyal to your 'loyal henchman'." Tohru stated.

"Em… well… I uh… I was simply hopping to duck away and find a large mallet with which to assist…"

"Yes, well while you were 'looking for your mallet', Jackie Chan and these children didn't hesitate to assist me, even though many of them were robbed of their mysterious yet incredible power." Tohru said as the Guardians flew in to stand with Tohru, along with Jackie and Caleb who joined them. "Something inside tells me that these people are my friends." Tohru said as he put a hand on Jackie's shoulder.

"That's your heart telling you that." Hay Lin said with a smile. "Because we _are _your friends."

"And of course, we'd help save your life, you saved ours plenty of times." Will also said with her own smile.

"Even if you can't remember us Tohru, we'll _never_ forget you." Taranee smiled.

"You're not just a friend to us, big guy. You're practically family." Irma nodded with a smile of her own.

"And there isn't anything we wouldn't do for you." Cornelia smiled as well.

Valmont however glared. "Well then I'll just be sure to erase _all _your memories!" He pulled out the potion-device and was about to spray all of them. Fortunately, Jade came in with a flying kick to kick the device into Valmont's face as he sprayed, resulting in the potion spraying onto his face.

"Bullseye." Jade smirked.

"Nice kick." Caleb complemented.

Just like all his victims, Valmont had lost all his memories as well. "Where am I?" He asked as he tried to pick himself up.

"The ballet." Jade told him. "You're doing a fabulous Swan Lake."

Valmont then stood up on his feet and began to perform said dance with such grace and beauty, which caused nearly everyone to laugh.

"Oh, please tell me you're recording this!" Will said to Irma with a laugh.

"Already on it." Irma smirked as she took out her phone to record Valmont's 'performance'.

"Hey, he's actually pretty good." Hay Lin complemented.

"Well Valmont can dance all the way to prison, alongside his compatriots." Jackie said, also referring to Hak Foo and the Ice Crew that were still in the grip of the surviving Stone Sentinels.

"Prison?!" Tohru voiced his worry, hopping Jackie wasn't referring to him as well.

"Don't worry Tohru, you're good." Taranee assured.

"Yes, elephants may remember with their heads, but you remembered us with your heart." Jackie smiled.

"Speaking of hearts…" Will held out the Heart of Kandrakar as she picked up the potion-device that Valmont had dropped and held the two close together. The Heart of Kandrakar began to glow brighter as the potion-device vanished and merged into the Heart of Kandrakar itself. She then walked towards her amnesiac friend.

"Alright Tohru, this will help bring your memories back." Will told him. "But, with your permission. I don't want to make you do anything you don't want to."

Tohru looked at the people that he knew in his heart he could trust as they each gave him supporting smiles and nods. "If what you say is true, and we are indeed close friends, then I want to remember. I want to remember those bonds that we share."

Everyone smiled widely as Will held the Heart of Kandrakar up towards his forehead as a pink light shined from the crystal and into Tohru's eyes. Once he saw that light, all the memories he lost when Valmont sprayed him with the potion all came back to him. Once the process was done, Tohru felt dizzy for a moment, causing his friends to rush to his side to prevent him from falling over.

When he regained his senses, Tohru looked around at his friends. "Jackie… Jade… Will…" Everyone smiled, especially the girls who seemed more emotional than everyone else. "I… I remember! I remember everything!" It was true, his memories had returned, and the Tohru they all knew and loved was back.

"Tohru!" Jade was the first to run up and hug his massive frame.

"We missed you so much!" Hay Lin flew up and wrapped her arms around his upper-neck area, followed by Irma, Taranee, even Will and Cornelia as they all embraced him, which he was more than happy to return.

"Welcome back, my friend." Caleb patted his back with a smile, as did Jackie with a nod of his own.

The embrace ended as Tohru felt a bite on his pants as the group looked down to see Uncle, still under the impression that he was a goat attempting to eat Tohru's pants. "Baaah!"

"Alright, better fix him up to." Will was ready to restore Uncle's memories, but Cornelia put a hand on her shoulder.

"Um, maybe not right away." Cornelia suggested. "He's a lot less annoying like this." Before anyone could protest Cornelia, she felt a tug on her hair. "Ow! Hey!" She looked down to see Uncle biting and pulling on her long blonde hair.

"Baaah!"

"AAAH! That's not hay, that's my hair!" Cornelia pulled her hair out of Uncle's mouth. "Bad goat! Bad goat!" She tried to fly away as Uncle still tried to jump up and get a bite onto her hair. "No! Bad goat! My hair's not food!" She scolded as she tried to get away from him, but he still kept going for her.

Jade laughed alongside Taranee, Irma, Hay Lin, and even Will. "You're right Cornelia." Jade chuckled. "I do like him this way."

Jackie smiled as he shook his head while Caleb tried to pull Uncle back from Cornelia. Tohru himself gave a small sigh with a smile. "It's good to be back."

**Done.**

**Now that was a fun chapter to write, and I hope you all enjoy it. Oh, and don't worry about Valmont, Hak Foo, and the Ice Crew being arrested, you're still gonna see quite a bit of them as I've got very special plans for these particular individuals. **

**And with that all done, we finally get started on a certain arc from the JCA series that I've been wanting to integrate into this story for quite a while. We're finally introduced to the new antagonist that I've been planning to bring in. For those of you who haven't figured it out by now, it is a certain demon that has an 'allergy' to a certain vegetable. I will get back to you soon on that, until then, stay safe and healthy out there. **


	20. Enter the Oni

**Hi everyone, thanks again for your patience. This is one part of J-WITCH that I've been wanting to write for some time as we are introduced to a new antagonist, and I'm sure you all know who it already is based on your guesses. Things are about to get interesting, so with all that being said, let us begin. **

**Enter the Oni **

The girls of WITCH, along with Jade and even Alchemy sat at a table in the Chan family shop, Uncle's Rare Finds, as they were currently having a study session with Jackie; though it seems Jade was among those that appeared the most bored.

"Dullsvile." Jade muttered aloud as she placed her head on the table.

"That's not even a real element." Taranee commented as she read her science textbook.

"No, but she's bored out of her head, kinda like I am right now." Irma sulked deeper into her chair.

"E equals MC squared? The hell does that even mean?" Cornelia questioned.

"Isn't that supposed to be math? Not science?" Will commented with a groan.

"Sounds more like Spanish." Hay Lin lightly complained.

"Come on, this stuff isn't all that hard to figure out." Alchemy said as she looked at some of her notes.

"Girls, your science midterm is next week." Jackie told them. "Let's keep going."

"How come we're studying lame science but Tohru and Caleb get all the fun magic stuff?" Jade complained, causing Jackie to roll his eyes slightly as the group glanced at the table on the other side.

"Uncle is waiting." The elder Chi-Wizard held a flashcard with a symbol on it in front of the pair; Caleb looked about as bored as ever, but Tohru tried to think of the answer.

"I don't know, a Passling repellent? OW!" Caleb felt a slap on his forehead.

"Incorrect! Tohru, answer?" Uncle asked his apprentice.

"Oh, I know this one!" Tohru stated. "Uh… that is the symbol for a conjuring spell… one that requires garlic… and uh… ginger."

"Correct." Uncle replied. "IF YOU WE'RE MAKING CHICKEN CHOW MEIN!"

That exclamation not only blew Tohru and Caleb back, but also got the attention of everyone else. "I don't see why we have to know all this fancy magic stuff." Caleb stated. "Just give me a sword and the bad guys will go down easy."

"Have you not been paying attention to recent events?!" Uncle reminded. "Now that Phobos has Elyon by his side, his forces will do what they must to protect her. Phobos cannot take her magic now, so he has swayed her to his side, and in order for her to stay in his confidence, he will act most cunning. Therefore, we must be prepared for whatever trick the Forces of Darkness has planned for us."

* * *

_Meridian _

Elyon continued to roam through the royal gardens, still under the illusion spell placed by her older brother, before she kneeled down to kneeled down to a pond and fed some ducklings some breadcrumbs before they swam away. As she looked in the water, she saw the reflection of Phobos standing over her.

"I've noticed something on your mind, Elyon." Phobos said. "What troubles you?"

The girl sighed for a moment before she stood up. "I'm from Meridian but… how did I end up on Earth? What happened to me?"

Phobos motioned for her to sit down with him on a nearby stone bench, which she did. "Elyon, I'm sure you've noticed that you wield incredible magic power." Phobos began. "The reason for that is because you are the heir to the throne."

Elyon looked both surprised and confused. "Wait, but you're my _older _brother. How can _I _be the heir, shouldn't it be you?"

"That's not how it works." Phobos explained. "Meridian's royal line is based on matrilineal succession, so only a queen may rule, or a king consort should the queen choose to marry."

"So, you can't be king?" Elyon asked in a sympathetic tone. "That must suck, I'm sorry."

"It's quite alright." Phobos assured with a feigning smile. "I've accepted that a long time ago. But, back to the topic at hand, because you are the heir, you wield more power than anyone in Meridian, and your power will only continue to grow. However, there are those that wished to obtain your power for themselves. Shortly after your birth, those assailants had infiltrated the castle, and murdered our parents in their sleep."

Elyon gasped as a pained look fell on Phobos' face before he continued. "After that, they stole you from the castle, while also framing me for the deed, and used the ensuing chaos to escape. I am still uncertain as to how you ended up on Earth of all places, and I am truly sorry it took so long to find you. Because of our parents' murder, I stepped up and attempted to bring order to our kingdom. But the true culprits spread lies and deceit, claiming me to be the murderer of not only my parents but you so that I could become the ruler of Meridian." Elyon continued to listen to her brother as she felt a great deal of sympathy toward him. "Because of that, the assailants had used these lies to create a Rebellion, thus beginning a war that has lasted many years, more than a decade even. I have tried to bring order and peace, while also doing everything I can to find you… but after so long… I… had to assume…" Phobos gave a small sigh before finishing. "I had thought they had killed you."

Elyon looked in shock at that particular statement and looked upon her brother with pity upon seeing the look on his face.

"Perhaps if I had been stronger, I could have saved you, and we would have been together." He felt a pressure around his right arm as he looked to see Elyon hugging it as she looked up to him with a smile.

"We're together now, that's all that matters." She said sincerely, to which her brother smiled as he returned the embrace with his own. "I'm so sorry you had to deal with all that all by yourself. It must have been so lonely."

"Fortunately, I have had those who remained loyal to assist me." Phobos said. "But… not a day goes by that I don't miss mother and father, and you."

"And you still don't know who killed them?" Elyon asked.

"Unfortunately." Phobos confirmed. "They've proven to be very adept at hiding themselves. And while I have no proof of this, I believe that the ones who murdered our parents were also responsible for giving your friends the Heart of Kandrakar, in order to turn them into their own personal enforcers."

"What?" That really made Elyon upset. "They did that to my friends?!" She clenched her fists as she stood up with determination. "Phobos, I want you to teach me how to use magic!" He looked in surprise as she continued. "I want to save my friends. If we work together, I'm sure we can show Meridian that you're not really the bad guy, and we can find out who really killed our parents and see to it they get what's coming to them!"

Though surprised at first, Phobos smiled as he stood up. "I will do everything I can to help you master your power, Elyon. But be careful." Phobos told her. "The Rebellion, and by extension your friends, believe you to be my prisoner. They'll do what they can to try and 'rescue' you, while the mastermind waits in the shadows to try and take your power. So, until you've mastered your power, I don't want you to leave the castle grounds, and I'll even assign a few bodyguards to remain by your side."

Elyon smiled slightly before a joking face formed. "It feels like I'm being grounded almost." She joked.

Phobos gave an amused half-smirk. "Forgive me, but I lost once. I'd rather not lose you again."

"You won't lose me." Elyon promised as she gave her brother another hug. "I know we only met recently but, you're my big brother. And I love you."

Phobos returned the gesture. "I love you too." Much of what Phobos said was indeed true; he was not the culprit for his parent's murder, someone else had assassinated them in their sleep and was likely the one who stole Elyon away. And he did indeed try to bring order to Meridian, but once his framed crime was leaked to the public, most quickly turned against him and the Rebellion was formed. However, once he had Elyon's power, he would see to it that nobody would ever threaten his realm again.

"My prince." Cedric had approached the pair as he gave a bow. "Daolon Wong has need of you."

Getting the subtle message in his right-hand's request, Phobos stood up. "I have to go Elyon, I'll be back soon."

"Alright." Elyon nodded as she walked away, with Phobos following Cedric in another direction.

* * *

Once inside the castle, and proceeding to the lower levels, Cedric was allowed to speak freely. "My lord, if I may, what exactly do you plan to do with Elyon once you've acquired her powers?"

"After I've absorbed all her power, I will erase her memory of everything magical related and return her to Earth, as though she was never in Meridian to begin with." Phobos answered. "As far as she'll know, she's a simple mortal girl."

Cedric was somewhat surprised by that. "Forgive me, my prince, but that seems rather lenient of you."

Phobos turned with a minor glare to the shapeshifter. "She's the only flesh and blood relative I have left! I have done many things in the past thirteen years, but I will not become the heartless monster that those foolish rebels claim me to be! Once I have her full power, I will end all conflict in Meridian and our realm will finally be at peace! And I will not hear another word of it, understood Cedric?"

Though he narrowed his eyes slightly, Cedric bowed in response. "Clearly, your majesty." Once Phobos turned to proceed further down the stairs, Cedric glared slightly in his direction. _'He is far too soft! But that may not matter, once he has acquired Elyon's power, I will take both of theirs for myself! And it Meridian will be _my _realm to rule!' _

The pair had finally made it to Daolon Wong's personal chambers as his Dark Chi Enforcers, along with Frost, had gathered several key ingredients from across Meridian.

"Passling ash." Wong required as he held his hand out.

"Check." Chow put a tube of ash in his hands, which Wong poured into his cauldron, filled with a dark blue liquid.

"Huggon eyes." Wong required the next ingredient.

Finn shivered as he gave Wong a sack of the eyeballs in question. "Check." Wong poured them into the cauldron as well.

"Ground gargoyle wins." Wong listed another ingredient.

"You wouldn't believe how hard it was to ground this." Ratso said as he handed him a tray of the ground substance, which Wong poured into the cauldron.

"Finally, the blood of a dragon." Wong looked towards Frost who glared.

"This had better be worth it." Frost said as he handed Wong a sack of the aforementioned blood. "Do you have any idea how rare dragons are in Meridian?! I may be the best hunter in this kingdom but finding rare and endangered species is more than difficult!"

Wong poured the contents into the cauldron. "You needn't worry. I have amassed the necessary spell ingredients to increase the power of our Shadowkhan forces."

"I had thought the Shadowkhan were already under our control." Cedric said as he and Phobos walked closer.

"While this is true, we've only been scratching the surface." Wong explained. "My studies have shown me that there is far more to the Shadowkhan than we can know. And while the princess may be on our side, her friends will undoubtedly try to rescue her. We need to be prepared as they will likely bring more effort into this conflict."

"Do what you must, but I best be satisfied with the results, wizard." Phobos warned.

Wong gave an annoyed glance as he began to recite a dark chant, while waving his hands over the cauldron as the bubbling dark liquid began to spin and twirl. Soon, the symbol of the Shadowkhan had formed in the liquid. "Yes! It is working!" A dark blue light shinned out of the cauldron, getting their attention.

"Come forth, my Shadowkhan minions!" Phobos stated with a smirk as he walked in front of the cauldron. "Come my army and unleash your darkness!"

"_Your _army?" A new and demonic voice spoke up, surprising all the bad guys present as they looked into the bubbling liquid to see a red, horned, demonic face with yellow eyes and white facial hair actually _speaking _to them. "I am the one and only king of the Shadowkhan!"

"What…. What is this?!" Phobos questioned as the others could only look in confusion, but Wong seemed to recognize this being.

"Tarakudo…? Awakened…?" The stunned Dark Chi wizard voiced his surprise aloud.

"And ready to reclaim my ninja-magic." The being apparently named Tarakudo stated. "A task for which I will require… assistance." He said somewhat embarrassingly before he materialized himself in the form of a large floating demonic head above the villains, much to theirs, and even Phobos surprise.

Tarakudo concentrated as he a psychic wave was unleashed from his head, allowing him to telekinetically grab Daolon Wong, Cedric, Frost, and even the Dark Chi Warriors before he unleashed another psychic wave to blast a hole into the wall, allowing him to fly outside while also telekinetically carrying the villains with him, leaving only Phobos as even he could only look in shock over what had just happened.

* * *

The floating demonic head had made its way to the surface as he floated in the air to observe the land around him with the villains floating in toe. "Hmm… this doesn't look like Earth." He brought the villains in front of him. "Tell me, what place is this?"

Despite all of them, especially the Dark Chi Enforcers, being stunned about floating in mid-air like this, Wong was the first to answer. "Dark one, you dwell within the world of Meridian, a separate realm from the Earth."

"I see." Tarakudo began to laminate as he overlooked the landscape of Meridian once more. "So, there are other realms besides Earth, the Shadow Realm, and the Netherworld. How interesting. But I must get to Earth."

"Yeah, you're gonna have to wait for a portal to show up." Finn said.

"Cause there's this magic wall thing that keeps Earth and Meridian separate." Chow added.

"And it's not the kind of wall that you can break down with a hammer. It's kinda hard to explain." Ratso also said.

"Be silent." Cedric told them before he addressed Tarakudo, using this as an opportunity to understand the Shadowkhan a bit more. "If you would like, I can show you how to find a portal."

"That won't be necessary." Tarakudo stated as he floated himself, and the villains he still had in his telekinetic grip, closer to the ground. "My minions and I were able to traverse between the Shadow Realm and Earth with relative ease. Traversing into the Shadow Realm and using that to cross into Earth shouldn't be too difficult." He concentrated on a rock as a symbol, which appeared to be a carving of his face, was etched onto the rock before a swirling black portal opened up in front of him. "You might wanna hold your breath." Tarakudo advised the other villains as he flew into the portal, with them being pulled in as well.

* * *

_Earth_

Captain Black's van suddenly pulled up to Uncle's Rare Finds as the head of Section 13 ran into the store where Jackie, his family and friends, including all the girls, were. "Jackie, Section 13 has spotted Cedric, Daolon Wong, and their buddies in Heatherfield!"

That got all their attention. "The bad guys are here?! Awesome!" Jade smirked as Will quickly pulled out the map and shined the Heart of Kandrakar over it, only to see nothing appearing.

"What? No portals?" Will voiced in surprise as everyone else looked in surprise and confusion.

"I'm sorry but… why are we looking for portals?" Alchemy asked, still not completely used to all this magic-business.

"It's how the bad guys cross to Earth from Meridian." Cornelia explained.

"Oh, right." Alchemy said.

"But if there's no portal, how did they get here?" Hay Lin asked.

"Maybe they used that inversion point again at Cedric's old bookstore?" Taranee asked.

"Yes, that may be the only explanation." Jackie assumed.

"We can ask them ourselves once we find them." Caleb stated.

"Hold your horses, rebel-boy. We still have no idea where they are." Irma told him.

Captain Black's phone rang, which he promptly answered. "Black. The Airport? Send in every available agent!"

Uncle quickly snatched the phone away, much to Black's surprise. "Your assistance will not be necessary! Magic will defeat magic! Goodbye!" He threw the phone away as he was the first to walk outside, followed by Tohru and everyone else. "Portal or no portal, the Forces of Darkness have entered our world! We must find and defeat them! Hurry!"

"Yes!" Jade stated as she ran out, alongside Alchemy.

"Alright, time for some action!" Alchemy also said excitedly, only for Jackie to block their path.

"No, you two are staying here."

"What?!" Both girls exclaimed at the same time.

"But I thought you said I could come on missions now!" Jade complained.

"And I want to help!" Alchemy also shouted.

"Alchemy, no offense, but do you have any idea how to fight magic?" Cornelia questioned, causing Alchemy to sulk as she couldn't come up with an answer.

"But I know how to fight magic!" Jade stated.

"Jade, you still have a test to study for." Jackie told her.

Jade groaned as she and Alchemy walked away. "Sorry guys." Hay Lin smiled apologetically as the van drove away with everyone else.

"Well, this sucks." Alchemy complained as she and Jade saw the van drive away. "They're fighting some kind of big bad evil and we can't do anything to help them!"

"Who said we can't?" Jade gave a knowing smirk.

* * *

_Airport_

"Serve me well and your reward will be great!" Tarakudo told the villains comprised of Cedric, Frost, Wong, and his Dark Chi Enforcers, all of whom stood on the tail way just outside an Airport dock.

"Serve?!" Frost exclaimed in anger before glaring at the floating demon. "Listen closely… I am Meridian's greatest hunter alive! I serve only Phobos! Not some…!" His ranting was brought to a halt as the humanoid Cedric placed his hand in front of the hunter.

"Forgive me, Tarakudo, was it?" Cedric spoke professionally. "Though we are already in service to Prince Phobos, I see no reason why we _can't_ work together. Perhaps we can find a mutually beneficial agreement in doing so."

Tarakudo looked rather impressed. "Ah, it seems someone here knows how to make deals. Very well, but before we talk, we must first acquire something of mine that I lost long ago. Now, where might I find this 'airplane' vehicle you mentioned?"

"Oh, there's one in there." Ratso pointed to a private jet that was unmanned at the moment inside a building. "You guys know how to hotwire a plane, right?" He asked his friends.

"We hotwired cars before, but never airplanes." Chow shrugged.

"How hard can it be?" Finn asked as they walked inside toward the plane.

Not long after that however, Captain Black's van rolled up as Jackie, Will, Irma, Tohru, Uncle, Caleb, Cornelia, Hay Lin, Taranee, and Captain Black all came out.

"Visitors?" Tarakudo asked.

"Chan, the Guardians, and their allies." Cedric responded.

"These fools are always getting in our way." Frost scowled.

"Perhaps now might be the time to unleash your Shadowkhan minions, oh mighty Tarakudo?" Daolon Wong spoke to the demon in question.

"Not just yet." Tarakudo answered "It's been several centuries since I've been in a fight. Time to stretch my legs, metaphorically speaking anyway."

Tarakudo gave a demonic roar as he shot at the heroes and hovered over them; they all looked in surprise and shock, while the five girls practically screamed as they all fell flat on their backs.

"Is that a floating head?!" Will almost screamed.

"Okay, that's actually kinda terrifying!" Hay Lin practically shivered at the sight.

"Caleb?" Cornelia asked the rebel leader who looked about as stunned as they did.

"Never seen that thing before!" Caleb stated as he was already on his feet and ready for a fight.

However, Tohru appeared the most terrified as his pupils shrunk. "Oni…"

"Uncle?" Jackie asked his uncle, hopping he had an answer for what this being was.

"The symbol of the Shadowkhan!" Uncle exclaimed, recognizing the face of the demon.

"What fun is a symbol, without drums?!" Tarakudo teased as he used his powers to telekinetically lift a series of barrels and threw them at the heroes; forcing them to scatter and avoid them. All save for Tohru, who appeared to be frozen with fear.

"Tohru!" Captain Black tried to push the large sumo out of the way. "Come on big fella! Trying to save you a nasty bruise here!" However, he was quickly hit and knocked down by a barrel, which appeared to knock Tohru out of his trance.

"Captain Black!" Tohru was quick to run and pick up the unconscious captain and move him to safety.

Meanwhile; Jackie and Caleb went on the offensive as the engaged Cedric and Frost respectively while Uncle entered a magic duel with Daolon Wong. Cedric ducked underneath Jackie's kick before he backed up and transformed into his massive snake-man form, much to Tarakudo's pleasant surprise.

"A shapeshifter. Haven't seen one of those in a while." Tarakudo mused as he saw Cedric reengage Jackie while Caleb continued to parry punches from Frost before the floating head directed his attention toward the regrouping girls.

Will was among the first to get serious as she immediately took out the Heart of Kandrakar and say the magic words. **"Guardians Unite!" **

Tarakudo had to wince slightly at the bright light as he bore witness to the transformation of the five mortal girls into the powerful Guardians known as WITCH. "Hmm, now that's something new."

"You like that? Well you're really gonna love this!" Irma thrusted her hands forward as she shot a blast of water at him, but Tarakudo was able to use his powers to erect an invisible psychic barrier to block the water, much to Irma's surprise. Cornelia was next as she tried to grow a series of plant tendrils from the ground to completely ensnare Tarakudo, only for him to easily phase through the plants as if they weren't even there. He felt a powerful breeze try to blast him from above, curtesey of Hay Lin who tried to hit him with a point-blank air attack from her mouth, but it barley blew him away as it only ruffled his facial hair and eyebrows a little bit. Taranee tried to summon a series of fireballs which she threw at him, but much like with Irma's attack, Tarakudo unleashed a psychic wave to blast them back.

"Ah, you wield elemental magic." Tarakudo observed as Irma, Hay Lin, Taranee, and Cornelia hovered in front of him to blast their respective elements at him, or a large rock from the ground in Cornelia's case. "A certainly powerful ability. But I'm afraid you're all still relatively inexperienced with your power." Using his own psychic powers, Tarakudo telekinetically took control of each attack, pulled them around his floating self, and shot them back at the surprised Guardians. The air attack hit Cornelia, the rock hit Irma, the water burst hit Taranee, and the fireball hit Hay Lin, as all four of them were knocked onto the ground.

Will tried to fly down on Tarakudo with a kick to get him from behind, but she was quickly ensared by his psychic powers and brought up to his face. "You don't have any elemental powers, do you?" The demon-head asked as Will struggled in his grip. Tarakudo however got a good look at the Heart of Kandrakar. "Or maybe you do… but it's just not active yet. Perhaps your powers have been weakened somehow."

"What are you talking about?" Will questioned.

Tarakudo however paid it no mind. "No matter, it's not my concern at the moment." He quickly threw Will to the ground as she skid towards an airplane.

"Ow…"

"Will, are you alright?" Alchemy asked as she and Jade tried to help her up.

"Yeah, I'm fine I…" Her eyes quickly widened as she turned around to see her two non-magic friends. "Jade?! Alchemy?!"

"Should you really be surprised at this point?" Jade raised an eyebrow with a smirk, causing Will to roll her eyes in annoyance.

Alchemy gave a sudden scream as she noticed the approaching Tarakudo, causing Will and Jade to turn around and see the floating demon head.

"Whoa…!" Even Jade was surprised to see something like this.

However, once Tarakudo set his eyes upon Jade, he recognized her. "You." For a brief moment, he saw her in a different appearance. One with pale blue skin, red eyes, a long black with a dark purple, spikey, top. "The former Queen of the Shadowkhan." An intrigued smile formed on his face. "Returning to the Forces of Darkness?"

Will quickly grabbed onto Jade and Alchemy and tried to fly away. "Sorry! Not happening!"

"Eh, what Will said!" Jade quickly agreed.

"In time." Tarakudo said with a patient sigh. "You're young."

A blast of chi-magic tried to strike him from behind, only for it to pass right through him. Tarakudo turned around to see Tohru trying to blast him with chi-magic with his blow fish, with Taranee and Irma backing him up with blasts of fire and water respectively, but he simply curved them away with his own psychic powers.

"Sensei, the spells are not working!" Tohru called out to Uncle, who was still busy in a wizard-duel with Daolon Wong, clashing their respective spells from their blowfish and dark scepter, though it seemed Daolon Wong had the advantage as he pressed on to blast Uncle back into Tohru while Tarakudo also used his powers to blast back Irma and Taranee as all four of them collided.

"That is because you do not study hard enough!" Uncle chastised his apprentice.

Meanwhile; Jackie continued to dodge and parry the massive fists from Cedric as the humanoid snake tried to lash out his tail at him, but Jackie leapt over it before jumping straight to Cedric's face to land a solid punch to knock him down. Jackie quickly waved his hand and sore knuckles as Cedric attempted to pick himself up and tried to smash his fists onto Jackie, but Hay Lin had created a tornado around Jackie and used the air to pull him out of the way.

At the same time, Caleb threw a punch to Frost, who caught it relatively easy before picking up Caleb and throwing him away. However, Frost had little time to celebrate as a series of plant-tendrils shot from the ground under him to propel him into the air straight towards Cornelia who landed a solid punch on his face to knock him to the ground, close to the regrouping Cedric and Daolon Wong.

All the heroes had regrouped together as well as Will set down Jade and Alchemy behind all of them and prepared themselves to reengage the enemy. However, before the fights could resume, a private jet began to pull out of the nearby hangar, the same one the Dark Chi Enforcers had managed to steal and operate. "Gentlemen." Tarakudo hovered over Wong, Frost, and Cedric. "I do believe our flight is departing."

With that, Wong had waved his scepter, creating a large plum of dark smoke to engulf himself, Cedric, and Frost before they vanished completely, while Tarakudo simply vanished into thin air with his own powers.

"Where did they go?!" Caleb questioned.

"Where do you think?!" Cornelia replied as she pointed to the plane that was already pulling out and gaining speed on the runway.

"Jackie!" Captain Black called to him as he had commandeered a staircase truck and had gunned it straight towards the departing plane as the five Guardians tried to fly and catch up with it as well, leaving Jade, Tohru, Uncle, Alchemy, and Caleb behind.

The pursuing heroes were close to catching up with it, but Chow, who was at the controls, began to pull the plane up into the air. Will and Taranee were able to grab onto the tail of the airplane as Irma and Cornelia tried to grab onto the right wing, with Hay Lin on the left. At the same time, Jackie had leapt from the top of Captain Black's improvised ride as it was pulled underneath the ascending plane. Jackie was able to grab on to the front wheels as they were pulled into the plane.

However, the five Guardians weren't so lucky as they each lost their grip one-by-one before the plane pulled away from them and shot into the air.

"There's no way we can catch up to an airplane!" Will exclaimed.

"And even if we could, I doubt even our Guardian powers can protect us from the lack of oxygen that high up." Taranee added.

"Don't worry, I think I saw Jackie get on-board." Hay Lin said.

"Wait; Jackie all alone, with three of our biggest baddies, and a floating head that whipped the runway with all five of us!?" Cornelia questioned as all the girls winced in realization.

"Yeah… that's not gonna be pretty." Irma said.

* * *

Jackie opened the floorboard as he got into the main compartment of the jet, only for Frost to hold out a bag in front of him. "Ordinarily, I'd crush you without a moment's hesitation." Frost commented as face looked green. "But… I think air travel… isn't agreeing with me." Frost ended up puking into the bag.

"Don't worry Frosty." Finn smirked as he, Ratso, Wong, and Cedric, back in his humanoid form, had already sat down and buckled up. "You ain't the only one about to feel air-sickness." He opened the emergency hatch on the wall, causing a vacuum to pull Jackie out of the plane.

"Hopefully that will finally rid us of that meddlesome fool." Wong sneered.

"As the Guardians are capable of flight however, that seems unlikely." Cedric said.

* * *

"BAD DAY! BAD DAY! BAD DAY! BAD DAY!" Jackie screamed as he fell from the sky towards the ground. However, he wouldn't have to worry for very long as Hay Lin quickly flew upwards to create a vortex of wind to slow Jackie's descent, allowing Will and Cornelia to fly in and grab him by the shoulders.

"And that's why you don't exit out of an aircraft without a parachute." Cornelia attempted a joke as Jackie tried to catch his breath.

"Thank you." Jackie said sincerely as they descend slowly to the ground.

"So, I'm guessing this means you're never gonna go skydiving, right?" Will tried to joke as well, resulting in Jackie giving a half-smirk as they set him down on the ground with Hay Lin, Irma, and Taranee flying down to meet them; Captain Black, Tohru, Uncle, Caleb, Jade, and Alchemy running up as well.

"Jackie! Are you alright?!" Jade asked urgently.

"Yes Jade, I'm…" His eyes quickly widened as he only just now realized his niece was here. "Jade?! How did you even get here?!"

"You really want me to answer that?" Jade responded.

"No time for this!" Uncle quickly stated, getting everyone's attention. "Quickly, now! We must follow floating head!"

This only earned a fearful groan from Tohru.

* * *

Later that night; Jackie, Will, Hay Lin, Tohru, Irma, Cornelia, Caleb, Taranee, and Uncle rode in a private jet that Captain Black arranged for them as they tried to follow the path of the plane the villains stole.

"Earth has vehicles that can actually fly through the air?" Caleb wondered aloud as he looked out the window with Cornelia sitting next to him. "Well, color me impressed."

"Who would have thought there'd be something on Earth that you would actually like." Cornelia joked.

"I didn't say I _didn't _like Earth." Caleb said. "It does have some good things to it." He smiled at Cornelia, as she blushed and tried to brush her hair back.

"Yeah, alright." Hay Lin spoke over her cell phone. "Thanks again Grandma. Okay. love you too. Bye." She hung up as she spoke to everyone else. "I just got off the phone with Grandma. She said she'll cover us with all our parents."

"Be sure to text her a 'thank you' from us." Will said.

"I'm still not comfortable with having her lie to your parents like this." Jackie said as he looked at the radar on his laptop.

"Would you rather prefer to tell them that we're fighting evil monsters and wizards from another dimension?" Irma asked somewhat sarcastically.

"I'd at least like to find out what our newest bad guy is." Taranee said as she did some typing on her laptop. "You said it was related to the Shadowkhan?"

"Yes, the _Symbol_ of the Shadowkhan." Uncle answered as Tohru continued to sleep on the chair across from his sensei. Though from the sound of it, it wasn't exactly a pleasant dream.

* * *

The young child Tohru slept in his room in Japan as a shadow of a horned creature loomed over him, its silhouette seen through the screen of his door. He was brought awake by the creeping sound of his door opening, though he was startled at the shape of the silhouette. Young Tohru quickly covered his mouth and hid underneath his blanket.

He peeked one out as he could scarcely make out features that weren't human on the creature behind his door. His eyes shook before the monster behind it opened it up with a roar.

* * *

"Mommy!" Tohru was startled awake as everyone looked to him with surprise and concern.

"Tohru?" Jackie, Uncle, and Caleb asked at the same time.

"Whoa, are you okay big guy?" Hay Lin asked with concern.

Tohru laughed nervously as he wiped the sweat from his face. "Bad dream."

"Let me guess." Jade revealed herself, as well as Alchemy, from the upper compartment. "Mr. Creepy Head."

"Jade?! Alchemy?!" Will questioned. "Oh, why am I even surprised?" She muttered to herself.

"You two are supposed to be with Captain Black!" Jackie chastised.

"We're your back-up." Alchemy said as she and Jade got down. "No offense, but you guys didn't seem to do well against that head-thing."

"Right. And you got any ideas on how to take that thing down?" Cornelia questioned irritably.

"Eh, we'll think of something." Jade shrugged.

Hay Lin sighed as she pulled her cell phone back out. "I'll text Grandma about your parents to, Alchemy."

"The head…" Tohru got everyone's attention. "It reminded me of the Oni…"

"The what?" Irma asked.

"When I was a child growing up in Japan, my mother told me tales of the Oni." Tohru explained. "Hideous horned demons, who would sneak into the rooms of disobedient children."

"And what do they want with these 'disobedient children'?" Jackie asked in a joking sense as he spared a glance at Jade, who only stuck her tongue out at him in response.

"The Oni would…" Tohru gulped. "Eat their souls!"

"Okay… that sounds pretty terrifying actually." Caleb said with widened eyes.

"So that head-thing eats kids' souls?" Hay Lin asked. "Um, we're technically teenagers, so does that mean we've passed the 'expiration date'?" She asked with a nervous laugh.

"It's like some kind of Japanese boogeyman." Alchemy said.

Uncle gave a scoff. "Fairy tales. Floating head cannot be Oni."

"It can't?" Tohru asked in a hopeful and relieved tone of voice.

"Of course not!" Uncle stated. "Everyone who has controlled the Shadowkhan has been Chinese! Shendu, Chinese; Daolon Wong, Chinese; but Oni are _Japanese_."

"Phobos isn't Chinese and the Shadowkhan work for him." Caleb added.

"Shadowkhan work for Phobos through Daolon Wong who is Chinese!" Uncle replied.

"But the Shadowkhan are ninjas, and aren't ninjas supposed to be Japanese?" Will asked.

"Yes, that's exactly right." Taranee said as she was on her laptop, prompting most of her friends to get in close. "I've been doing some research. Ninjas did originate from Japan, and certain Japanese myths actually depict ninjas as Tengu, which is often used to associate with goblins or even demons. But I haven't seen anything Oni related. At least not yet."

"Well whatever's the case, that floating head thing is definitely the original owner of the Shadowkhan." Will said, that much everyone can agree on.

"So, is he Japanese or Chinese?" Alchemy asked.

"I am telling you; floating head is _Chinese!_" Uncle stated.

"Well, I think he's Japanese." Taranee argued, but upon seeing Tohru shiver, she quickly spoke to him. "Eh… But I'm not saying he's Oni. Maybe he's a demon who doesn't eat kids' souls?"

"And why would you even be worried about that?" Cornelia asked. "You're a grown man, Tohru. I'm pretty sure he's not interested in your soul if they eat kids' souls."

"If that's true, why did he have Daolon Wong, Cedric, and Frost with him?" Caleb asked. "They work for Phobos."

"Duh! It's a classic supervillain team up!" Jade stated. "Haven't you read any comic books?!"

"Great, but how are we supposed to fight him when that thing took us all down without even trying?" Irma asked before leaning to Tohru and whispering to him. "By the way, you wouldn't happen to still remember any of those Oni stories, would you? I'd like to try them on Chris so I can traumatize him into not being such a nuisance."

Suddenly, Jackie's laptop lit up, getting everyone's attention as Jackie looked at the computer. "Radar indicates that the stolen airplane has landed in Hong Kong."

"See? Hong Kong. Chinese!" Uncle said with a victorious smirk as Taranee, Cornelia, and Caleb all rolled their eyes.

* * *

Once they landed, all the heroes followed the trail of the villains they were pursuing and found themselves standing before a set of familiar ruins that the Chan Clan immediately recognized.

"Shendu's palace?" Jackie questioned.

"Wow, Father-Time really took a baseball bat to this place." Irma commented on the bad condition the ruins were in.

"Actually, Jackie and I did that, after we kicked Shendu's dragon butt!" Jade smirked as she performed a kick for emphasis.

"But why did they come here?" Caleb asked.

"Shendu collected many artifacts possessing great magic." Uncle replied. "Floating head may be seeking one of these."

"Hey guys, over here!" Will called to them as she found a rather large hole which she had inspected. "Looks like this was dug up recently."

"Then into the rabbit hole we go." Cornelia said.

"Except we're not going into Wonderland." Taranee commented.

Though most of the group had already gone inside, Tohru seemed rather hesitant. "Eh… I will stand guard outside."

"Don't worry Tohru, we're here for you." Hay Lin assured as she and Alchemy each held his hand.

"Besides, it's just a silly old head, right?" Alchemy tried to calm him down.

Tohru gulped. "Just a silly old, soul-stealing, Shadowkhan-controlling, head."

This caused both Hay Lin and Alchemy to look nervous themselves as they ended up holding Tohru's hands even tighter for their own comfort before the trio followed their friends underground.

* * *

Meanwhile; Tarakudo had led Cedric, Wong, Frost, and the trio of Dark Chi Enforcers through the maze of underground tunnels underneath the ruined palace before finally making it to their destination. Which appeared to be a large chamber filled with all sorts of treasures, but what Tarakudo was focused on was the large stone chest that laid in the middle of it.

"Ah, consider it a gift." Tarakudo said as he led the villains closer to it.

"Oooh, just like Christmas." Ratso said excitedly.

"Bet there's a ton of treasure in it!" Chow seemed just excited.

"Quit your childish antics and open it!" Wong ordered them as the Dark Chi Enforcers and Frost used their combine strength to open the stone lid to reveal the contents inside.

"A mask?" Cedric voiced his curiosity aloud upon seeing a dark red demonic looking mask with green hair on the back and short yellow horns at the top, an open mouth with yellow teeth, and bright red eyes.

"Dude, we came all this way for a mask?" Finn questioned.

"I've hunted animals that were more valuable than this piece of junk." Frost said in a disappointed tone.

"This 'piece of junk' is what Shendu drew the power necessary to control his Shadowkhan army." Tarakudo explained. "And through which your magic, Daolon Wong, channeled that very same power."

"So, this mask is the source of the Shadowkhan." Cedric mused with an intrigued smirk.

However, none of the villains appeared to notice that the heroes have caught up with them and hid behind the entrance, having heard everything the villains all said. Will looked toward Jackie has he had a serious expression on his face before nodding to her, giving her the signal to bring out the Heart of Kandrakar.

"Seeing how you look so interested Cedric, perhaps you'd like to see how it fits?" Tarakudo suggested.

Cedric picked up the mask to inspect it himself. He'd be a fool to say he wasn't cautious. There was apparently a lot more to the Shadowkhan than he originally felt, and he wasn't about to blindly follow the apparent 'King' of the Shadowkhan without knowing all the details. However, his contemplation was brought to an end as a bright pink flash blinded and surprised all the villains.

Using the flash to his advantage, Jackie was quick to run in and pull the mask from Cedric's hands before kicking him in the chest to knock him back. When the flash subsided, Jackie leapt back with the mask to regroup with the transformed Guardians, along with Jade, Uncle, Caleb, Tohru, and Alchemy.

Upon seeing the heroes Cedric immediately got back up and transformed into his humongous snake form; he tried to lunge at them, only for his path to be barred by Tohru who grappled and wrestled with the humanoid snake. Daolon Wong tried to blast dark chi magic at Irma and Hay Lin, who combined their respective water and wind power for a surging storm attack, which they unleashed on the dark chi wizard to not only override his attack, but also blast him all the way to a pile of treasure on the other side of the chamber.

The Dark Chi Enforcers and Frost tried to charge Jackie, Will, Caleb, Cornelia, and Taranee as the bespectacled girl unleashed a torrent of fire, forcing many of them to scatter as one fireball hit Chow, causing him to explode and vanish in a plum of dark smoke while Jackie and Caleb both leapt into the air to deliver a double flying kick to Frost to send him crashing into Cedric who was still wrestling Tohru. Cornelia shot several rocks from the ground to send both Finn and Ratso flying as Will met Finn in the air to deliver an airborne roundhouse to send Finn crashing hard on the ground where he vanished.

Ratso was the only surviving Dark Chi warrior as he landed on the ground in front of the hovering Tarakudo. "Again!?" The floating demon head questioned in annoyance. "Who _are _these people?!"

"Well, Jackie Chan is some kind of do-gooder." Ratso explained. "Those fairy girls are some kind of magic guardians, and the big guy over there used to be one of us but now he's on their side, and that kid is some kind of rebel leader, and the old guy pointing a blow fish…" He was silenced by a chi-blast from Uncle, causing the Dark Chi Enforcer to vanish.

Uncle blew the smoke from his blowfish like a cowboy as he stood alongside a smirking Jade and Alchemy. "Who else wants a piece of Uncle?!" He challenged.

"Bad guys beware, because J-WITCH is in the house!" Irma smirked as the five Guardians regrouped along with Jackie, Caleb, and Tohru.

Tarakudo glared at the heroes in question. "You have no idea who you are dealing with."

"And just who _are _we dealing with?" Will questioned with a glare of her own.

"No seriously, who are you?" Hay Lin asked as well. "Because we've been wondering this whole time and we don't even know what you are."

"Bow before Tarakudo!" The floating demon head announced dramatically. "King of all Shadowkhan! Lord of all Oni!"

Uncle gave a gasp of realization. "So, you _are _Japanese!"

"Told ya." Taranee smirked at Uncle.

Tarakudo unleashed a powerful psychic blast that knocked back all the heroes. "And now you know." He remarked to them.

The recovering Daolon Wong noticed the mask that fell from Jackie's grip once the heroes were blasted back by Tarakudo. "Retrieve the mask!" The dark chi wizard ordered as Cedric recovered to try and slither for it.

Jackie quickly ran and slid toward the mask before the humanoid snake could reach it and kicked it across the ground. "Cornelia!" Jackie was then pinned to the ground by Cedric as the blonde Guardian used her earth-powers to shoot the mask into the air where she tried to grab it.

"I got it!" However, the mask was pulled through the air away from her, curtsey of Tarakudo's own psychic powers.

"Mind over matter." Tarakudo lifted the mask towards himself, but Hay Lin quickly flew in to unleash a powerful blast of wind from a breath of her mouth to blow the mask away before she quickly flew in to grab it herself. However, she was blasted out of the air in the back by Daolon Wong as the mask fell towards him.

However, Jade tried to run and stop him, only for Frost to run towards her from the opposite direction to try and stop her. "Mine!"

"I don't think so!" Frost stated as they both leapt, only to end up crashing into Wong just before he could reach the mask. The mask fell in the scuffle and accidentally landed directly on the face of Frost the Hunter.

The second the mask made contact with Frost's face; it grew around him to completely engulf his head before the mask essentially merged with Frost himself. "What… what is going…?!" Frost questioned as he felt a surge of power flow through his body as he stood up to reveal the mask was now a part of his face as he gave a demonic growl.

Jackie, Will, Jade, Irma, Uncle, Cornelia, Tohru, Hay Lin, Taranee, Alchemy, and Caleb all looked in complete and utter shock at Frost's new appearance, as even Cedric and Wong were caught off-guard.

"What just happened?!" Caleb questioned.

"It looks like that mask-thing merged with his face!" Taranee said.

"It kinda looks like it _is _his face now!" Alchemy questioned, sounding rather disturbed herself.

"Handsome devil, isn't he?" Tarakudo remarked with a smirk. "Let's allow Frost to familiarize himself with his new powers, while the rest of us make further preparations." Tarakudo then vanished into thin air before Cedric and Daolon Wong were telekinetically lifted into the air by the Oni king's psychic powers and pulled out of the chamber.

"Uh… what does he mean by further preparations?" Jade asked with worry.

Jackie, meanwhile, attempted to pull the Oni mask off Frost's face, but it didn't even budge. Frost merely swatted his hand to knock Jackie back.

"Eleven against one." Oni-Frost commented, his voice sounding deeper and more demonic than before. "Now that hardly seems fair." He then unleashed a rather loud roar, which honestly sounded more like an animal-call, which wasn't all that inaccurate as the group saw all the shadows in the chamber move directly toward them.

"Um, guys…" Will said in a frightened tone. "…I'm thinking this mask thing gives Frost the power to summon…" All the shadows surrounded the group before the solidified in the form of at least a hundred familiar ninja-like soldiers. "…Shadowkhan."

"Get them." Frost ordered, resulting in the Shadowkhan leaping at the gathered heroes; but Hay Lin was able to create a powerful tornado to blow all the Shadowkhan away, allowing the heroes to scatter and gain some breathing room as they faced the recovering enemy forces.

Uncle drew his blowfish and immediately opened fire with chi-blasts, while Taranee did the same with a series of fireballs to blow up each Shadowkhan that came close to her. Cornelia tried to use her earth-powers to raise a series of plant tendrils from the ground and walls to smack and even impale the incoming Shadowkhan that came close to her. Hay Lin hovered in front of a horde of treasure as she used her air powers to lift several pieces of treasure from the ground and throw them at the charging magic ninjas, scoring several direct hits. Irma used finger-guns to try and blast concentrated shots of water as Will flew underneath her to deliver a flying kick to one Shadowkhan before relying on hand-to-hand to defend herself from several Shadowkhan soldiers that surrounded and attacked her.

Jackie was in a similar scenario, using punches and kicks to knock back the Shadowkhan that were on the attack. Caleb was kicked back into a pile of treasure by one Shadowkhan, and as they went on the attack, Caleb was quick to draw a jeweled scepter on instinct and use it as a make-shift weapon to beat the Shadowkhan back. At least a dozen Shadowkhan attempted to jump and pile themselves on Tohru, but he merely flexed his arms to knock them all back.

"Is it always like this for you guys?" Alchemy asked as she and Jade hid behind the same stone chest that the mask was retrieved from.

"Oh yeah." Jade replied. They both however saw Tohru get knocked down and slide at the feet of Oni-Frost.

"Boo."

Tohru's childhood fears awakened as he found himself literally paralyzed with fear.

"Come on Tohru! You faced guys way bigger than him!" Hay Lin called to him as she was on the defensive from several Shadowkhan herself.

"Yeah! Face your fear, T!" Jade also called.

"Show that demon who's boss!" Alchemy also shouted to him.

This seemed to work in encouraging Tohru to stand up as he tried to leap and overpower Oni-Frost with raw strength. However, Oni-Frost was able to effortlessly stop and pick up Tohru with one hand and hang him over his head, much to the shock of everyone present, including those who were still fighting the Shadowkhan.

"I've lift bags of flour heavier than this." Oni-Frost smirked before he nonchalantly flung Tohru behind him into the stone chest that Jade and Alchemy hid behind. Though they were able to get away in time, Tohru's impact had shattered the entire chest.

"For God's sake! How many Shadowkhan does this guy have!? It's like we're fighting a whole army!" Cornelia exclaimed as she flung several rocks and debris at the Shadowkhan that kept charging her.

Uncle was on top of a pile of treasure as he was having similar trouble, barley keeping the Shadowkhan at bay with his chi-blasts. Though Taranee was quick to fly to his aid as she created a ring of fire around themselves to keep the Shadowkhan at bay.

"Cornelia's right! We take down more, Frost brings two more to take its place! It's like a hydra!" Taranee commented.

"We must remove demon mask from host in order to defeat Shadowkhan!" Uncle exclaimed. "Jackie, one more thing! You, girls, and rebel leader keep Shadowkhan busy so Uncle can cast proper spell!"

"What the hell do you think we're doing?!" Irma exclaimed in frustration as she ducked underneath a hail of shurikens before shooting a point-blank geyser attack from her hands to blast back three Shadowkhan, only for one to leap behind her and knock her down with a kick.

She was surrounded by three Shadowkhan who were ready to finish her, but salvation came in the form of Jackie who dropped in with a kick to knock one Shadowkhan back before lashing out two punches to knock down the remaining two before pulling Irma out of the way.

"There are too many of them to fight!" Jackie stated as he, the Guardians, and Caleb regrouped only to find themselves facing the same number of Shadowkhan as before.

"Let's use the tunnels to our advantage." Will said as she gazed back towards the entrance, remembering the maze they had to work their way through before coming here. "Come on!"

Following Will's lead, her fellow Guardians flew with her as Jackie and Caleb ran alongside them, the young rebel leader turning around to call to their mask-wearing adversary. "Hey Frost! Come and get us!" Caleb challenged as they ran into the tunnels.

Oni-Frost only smirked in anticipation. "Let the hunt begin." He ordered his Shadowkhan to give pursuit as he walked after them, leaving Uncle, Tohru, Jade, and Alchemy alone.

"Sensei, what spell do we need?" Tohru asked Uncle, who only shrugged as he honestly had no idea.

"Hey, guys! Over here!" Alchemy called to them as the pair met her and Jade near the rubble of the stone chest where a large stone tablet was in pieces, but the girls were able to put the pieces together like a puzzle depicting a battle between samurai and demons.

"Maybe this picture book can help us." Jade said as they tried to make it out. "What does it say, Uncle?"

"These are _Japanese_ kanji; Uncle only reads Chinese." The chi-wizard stated.

"Um… I read Japanese." Tohru said. "But… it has been many years. In fact,… I am probably too shaky so forget that I mentioned…"

"Tohru, read kanji now!" Uncle ordered.

"Yes sensei!" Tohru said immediately.

* * *

Meanwhile; Jackie, Caleb, and the Guardians continued to try and make their way through the maze of tunnels underneath the ruins of Shendu's palace.

"You think we lost them?" Hay Lin asked in a hopeful tone.

In direct response, a Shadowkhan leapt from the shadows on the side, but Jackie delivered a kick to knock it back as they were quickly surrounded by more than two dozen Shadowkhan soldiers that leapt out of the moving shadows.

"No Hay Lin." Cornelia replied. "I don't think we have."

Once again, the Shadowkhan were on the attack as they leapt at the heroes. Taranee and Hay Lin combined their powers to create a vortex of wind and fire to surround and protect themselves and their friends and blow away most of the Shadowkhan. Once it vanished, the heroes went on the attack as Irma shot a series of water blasts at a group of Shadowkhan while Cornelia collapsed a section of the ceiling to crush six Shadowkhan at once.

Will flew into the air to meet three Shadowkhan, which she was quick to dispatch with a series of punches and kicks. Caleb, still holding the scepter he got from the treasure horde, used his makeshift weapon as a club to smash down two Shadowkhan that leapt at him before Jackie ducked underneath one punch from a Shadowkhan, grab it by the wrist and fling him over into three more before sweeping his feet to knock four more down.

* * *

"The kanji tell of ancient warriors who once cast a spell to defeat this Oni…" Tohru read the inscriptions on the tablet aloud for Uncle, Jade, and Alchemy. "…Trapping its spirit within the mask. The key ingredient… was Japanese steel, specially forged for a samurai sword."

"Aiya!" Uncle exclaimed. "We will not find steel of samurai sword here because Shendu is not Japanese!"

"Well, I don't know about a sword…" Alchemy said as she picked up one of the shurikens a Shadowkhan had thrown earlier. "But would a ninja star do?"

"Well, it doesn't say 'made in Taiwan'." Jade assumed as she looked at it before Alchemy handed it to Uncle.

"Alchemy, what makes you certain this is Japanese steel?" Uncle asked upon inspecting the shuriken.

"Well, Taranee did say that ninjas are Japanese, and the Shadowkhan are ninjas so…?" She shrugged, sounding rather unsure herself.

With no other choice however, the four began to work on preparing the spell and hopped it would be enough to defeat Frost and his new Oni-powers.

* * *

Meanwhile; the Guardians, Jackie, and Caleb found themselves literally cornered in a larger chamber with their only exit blocked by three dozen Shadowkhan, and they had no other way to escape.

"Uh oh, dead end." Will gulped.

"Emphasis on 'dead'." Cornelia commented as the group saw the Shadowkhan part and open a path for Oni-Frost to walk in and face the group himself.

"And now the predator has his prey cornered." Oni-Frost smirked almost sadistically. "I will rip each of your heats out and eat them whole!" He said with a demonic growl.

They all seemed rather disturbed by that particular comment. "Uh, is it just me, or does he sound even worse than before?" Taranee noticed.

"It's not just you." Caleb replied. "Frost is evil, but he's never actually _eaten _people before!"

"It must be the mask." Jackie deduced. "It might be corrupting him and turning him into an even worse monster."

"As if this guy wasn't bad enough." Irma muttered as Oni-Frost charged them, forcing them to split up and avoid his crushing fist that cracked the ground where he punched at them.

Caleb was the first to attack with a punch, but Oni-Frost effortlessly caught it before flinging and using Caleb's own body as a weapon to knock down Hay Lin and Taranee before throwing him at Cornelia to knock them both down. Irma tried to blast him with a point-blank water attack, but Oni-Frost quickly ducked and charged Irma to deal a powerful punch into her abdomen, knocking the wind out of her and even spilling some blood from her mouth as she was flung into the air before crashing onto the ground.

Will flew down with a kick to Oni-Frost's chest and knock him back slightly before she grappled with him and tried to press her own strength against him, but Oni-Frost only smiled with an eager growl as he pressed down even more strength, overpowering Will while also attempting to crush her hands in his grip, resulting in Will grunting and even yelling in pain. The pain was fortunately brough to an end as Jackie leapt to deliver a punch to Oni-Frost's face and knock him back slightly.

Jackie however waved his hand as he gave a slight wince in pain as Will pulled herself back up. "Thanks Jackie." However, Jackie didn't get a chance to reply as Oni-Frost quickly rushed in to deliver powerful punches to both of them, not even giving them the time to retaliate as they were knocked onto the ground.

With his back turned; Caleb, Irma, Hay Lin, Taranee, and Cornelia tried to get the jump on him with their respective powers, or weapon in Caleb's case, but Oni-Frost quickly leapt into the air to deliver a series of powerful punches and kicks to knock them all onto the ground in a pile together. He even picked up the scepter Caleb had been using and snapped it in half for emphasis of his own superior strength.

"It's over, fools." Oni-Frost told them as they all groaned and attempted to pull themselves up. However, they all heard a pair of familiar voices reciting an unfamiliar chant from behind.

"_Nukeru, He Men Ja'aku. Nukeru, He Men Ja'aku. Nukeru, He Men Ja'aku." _The group turned around to see Tohru, with Jade and Alchemy at his sides. Sitting on top of Tohru was Uncle as they both recited the chant while Tohru held the shuriken as he and Uncle channeled their chi-magic into it. _"Nukeru, He Men Ja'aku. Nukeru, He Men Ja'aku." _

"Yes, it is." Jackie said with a relieved smile as the girls and Caleb each shared a smile of their own.

A beam of green magic shot from the shuriken toward Jackie as a green aura formed over both his hands, much to his confusion. "Jackie! Remove mask!" Uncle told him.

No time to waste, Caleb and Will both leapt behind Oni-Frost and grabbed him by the arms while Jackie leapt on top of him and grabbed the mask with his glowing hands. Cornelia, and Irma grabbed onto Jackie as they pulled on him, while Hay Lin and Taranee grabbed onto Will and Caleb respectively as they tried to pull Oni-Frost back while Jackie attempted to pull the mask off with Cornelia and Hay Lin pulling on Jackie who tried to pry the mask off.

"Get them off me!" Oni-Frost ordered his Shadowkhan as they quickly leapt to try and pull the heroes off their master. However, this only worked in favor of the heroes as there was more force being applied to pull the mask and Frost apart.

"It's not coming off!" Alchemy and Jade both shouted at the same time.

"Patience." Uncle told them.

It was tough, and they all gave it as much effort as they could; but Jackie, the Guardians, and Caleb, and incidentally the Shadowkhan, were able to successfully separate the Oni mask from Frost's face. The force sent all of them flying backwards and apart from one another, skidding on the ground.

Jackie looked and saw that the mask was now in his hands, with everyone else seeing the result as well. "We did it! We got it off him!" Hay Lin cheered.

Frost growled as he quickly pulled himself up. "Kill them all!" Unfortunately, his Shadowkhan had already vanished, and he had lost all the strength he gained from the mask. He then looked nervously at the glaring Guardians, Caleb, and Jackie as they pulled themselves up. He backed up slowly, only to back into the larger Tohru, who cracked his knuckles.

"Boo."

Knowing he lost this fight; Frost ran away as fast as he could as the heroes regrouped to celebrate.

"That was a close call." Will said.

"True, but we still won! Score one for the good guys!" Irma smirked as she and Jade shared a high-five with Cornelia doing the same with Alchemy.

"Perhaps this would be safer in the vault in Section 13." Jackie said, referring to the Oni mask in his hands.

"That's a good idea." Taranee agreed.

"Best to keep that thing far from Phobos or anyone else like him." Caleb also agreed.

"New evil Tarakudo has been defeated." Uncle nodded in approval.

"Um… one more thing." Tohru got their attention as he addressed the stone tablet from before that he pieced together, indicating that it wasn't over.

"Oh no." Jackie face-palmed, having a good idea what was coming next, while the Guardians, Caleb, Uncle, Jade, and Alchemy only looked even more nervous than before.

* * *

Frost had made it outside the ruins of Shendu's palace as he looked around for any of his allies, but they were nowhere in sight. "Just perfect." He spoke in a sigh. "How am I supposed to get back to Meridian…!" He suddenly screamed as he was telekinetically lifted and pulled into the air away from the palace ruins.

He was pulled and slammed into the ground near a waterfall where Tarakudo, Cedric, and Daolon Wong were waiting for him.

"Where is the mask?" Wong questioned as Frost picked himself up.

"They took it." Frost answered with a low growl. "I almost had them, but that wizard used some fancy spell to let them pull it off my face!"

Cedric hissed as he loomed over the frightened hunter. "Insolent fool! You have failed!" The large shapeshifter was about to punish him, but Tarakudo stopped him from doing so.

"That's enough." The Oni King said in a calm and patient tone. "It is but a minor defeat."

"Oh? And why is that?" Cedric asked.

"It appears I have underestimated Mr. Chan and these so-called Guardians." Tarakudo admitted. "Clearly, I need more information, and it seems you might be able to provide me with such. Come, let's return to Meridian." Tarakudo looked towards a large rock as he concentrated and used his powers to carve his symbol onto the rock, causing a dark portal to open up. "Our mission, has only yet begun."

Though surprised; Wong, Cedric, and even Frost were nonetheless intrigued as they followed Tarakudo into the Shadow Realm to cross back into Meridian.

* * *

Back inside the tunnels, Tohru read the contents of tablet for Jackie, the Guardians, Jade, Uncle, Caleb, and Alchemy. "It goes on to say, that Tarakudo once terrorized the land of Ancient Japan with his trusted Oni generals. Each demon general controlled its own army, which were comprised of a different tribe of Shadowkhan."

"Wait… tribe?" Cornelia asked. "You mean, all those Shadowkhan we've fought before…"

"We're just part of _one_ tribe." Tohru confirmed.

"And if… each tribe is different…?" Hay Lin begun nervously.

"What are these… other Shadowkhan like…?" Irma asked in an equally nervous tone.

"I would prefer not to have to find out." Jackie said, just as unnerving as everyone else.

"But I've got a bad feeling we will find out, knowing our luck." Will commented.

"What does the rest say?" Alchemy asked Tohru who continued to read.

"Tarakudo's reign came to an end when the spirits of his generals were trapped within masks." Tohru read. "Nine generals, nine masks."

"Nine different tribes of Shadowkhan…?" Jade asked with a gulp.

"Each with their own unique powers or abilities…?" Taranee was already sweating.

"What are we waiting for!?" Uncle exclaimed. "There are eight more masks, which we must find before Forces of Darkness do!"

"Let me guess, the masks were scattered across the Earth?" Jackie assumed.

"Yep." Tohru confirmed. "Uh… one more thing."

"What _now_?" Cornelia groaned.

"Should the nine masks ever be rejoined…" Tohru continued to read. "Their combined power may summon enough Shadowkhan to engulf the entire Earth in eternal darkness."

If they weren't scared before, they certainly were now.

"It might not just be Earth." Caleb said, getting their attention. "Tarakudo is definitely a dangerous threat, but those were _Phobos' _henchmen back there. And if those two end up working together… It'll make the situation much bleaker, for both Earth _and _Meridian."

"Aiya!" Uncle exclaimed. "Tohru must do research!"

"He must?" Tohru asked worriedly.

"You were told childhood tales of Oni by mother." Uncle told his apprentice. "You read Japanese, you _are _Japanese, so you must do research!"

Tohru gulped. "Yes sensei."

"Well, at least you got an assistant to help you out." Taranee said as she put her hands on Tohru's shoulder, volunteering herself to help.

"I don't know a whole lot about monsters or Japanese legends, but I still wanna help." Alchemy also volunteered. "And since I can't exactly help in a fight…"

Though still nervous, Tohru was nonetheless grateful for their support. "Thank you."

"Well, look at the bright side." Jade said to the rest of her friends.

"Bright side?!" Cornelia questioned. "As if we didn't have our hands full enough with just Phobos, now we're about to go to war with a floating demon head, his nine generals, and like a million monster ninjas! How the hell is there a bright side?!"

"You guys finally get to embark on an infamous Chan-Clan world tour!" Jade said, trying to bring some excitement to the group in this otherwise bleak scenario, but it didn't appear to work.

"Yeah, lucky us." Will muttered as she and Jackie shared nervous expressions.

* * *

_Meridian – Phobos Castle_

It was late at night as Elyon had already gone to bed, while the dark prince continued to sit on his throne room when the chamber doors opened, allowing Cedric, Daolon Wong, and Frost to enter.

"So, you have returned." Phobos glared at them, still not pleased how they suddenly vanished on him.

"There is no need to blame them, Prince Phobos." A new voice said as Tarakudo's face emerged from one of the stained-glass windows on the side before he faced the prince. "Their disappearance was a result of my own actions."

"I remember you." Phobos stood from his throne. "You claimed to be the 'King of the Shadowkhan'."

"Tarakudo, the lord of all Oni, at your service." He introduced himself. "I apologize for my earlier rudeness, and I would like to make it up to you with a proposition."

"I'm listening." Phobos raised a curious eyebrow.

"For some time, you have been using the Shadowkhan as enforcers in your rule over this realm of Meridian." Tarakudo began. "But what if I were to tell you, that you were only scratching the surface of what the Shadowkhan truly are?" That got Phobos attention as Tarakudo continued to explain. "You see, the ones you have been using hale from only one tribe, when in fact, there are a total of _nine _tribes of Shadowkhan, each tribe with their own unique and deadly abilities that are capable of instilling terror into the hearts of even the most disciplined of warriors."

"And how would one command these tribes, as I've apparently been only in command of simply one?" Phobos asked.

"You see, many centuries ago, the spirits of my generals, demons that each led one of the Shadowkhan tribes, were imprisoned within nine separate masks." Tarakudo's face shifted to show the previous mask, before shifting to show several different Oni masks of different shapes and colors before reforming his own face. "These masks were scattered across the realm of Earth long ago, but I know how to find them. Once a mask is placed on someone's face, that person not only gains the strength and power of the Oni spirit within the mask, but complete and total control over the Shadowkhan tribe that demon general commanded. And should all nine masks be rejoined together, one can summon enough Shadowkhan to engulf an entire realm into eternal darkness, where all good magic will fade into nothingness. A realm like Earth for instance or even… Meridian." He finished with a smirk.

Phobos had an intrigued smile on his face. "Well, you certainly have caught my interest, Tarakudo. But few things are without a price, so what is it that you wish in return?"

"Information." Tarakudo answered. "Specifically, on our mutual enemy: the ones called Jackie Chan and the Guardians. And seeing as we have a common enemy, I propose an alliance. We will work together to retrieve the masks, I will provide you aid and information regarding the Shadowkhan, as well as the means to further cement your reign in Meridian; and in return, you tell me everything about Mr. Chan and those young ladies, and assist me in using our combined power to rule over the Earth. With our combined powers, we will rule over not just one, but two realms; perhaps even more."

That was all Phobos needed to hear as he smiled evilly. "Then it seems we have a deal. I would shake your hand, but you don't seem to have any."

Tarakudo only smirked somewhat humorously as he used his powers to pull several rocks and pebbles from the ground and bring them together to form a stone hand that he telekinetically controlled and held towards Phobos. "Is that better?"

Without a doubt in mind, Phobos shook the stone hand with his own, thereby solidifying the alliance between the Dark Prince of Meridian and the King of the Shadowkhan.

**Done.**

**Yep, Tarakudo has finally made his appearance and has formed an alliance with Phobos. (However, unlike Cedric or Wong, Tarakudo has no ulterior motives. It's what I like about Tarakudo as a character, he may be evil, but he is honest and respectful to his subordinates and allies. So you can expect him and Phobos to actually get along quite well). The Oni and Tarakudo have proven to be quite the challenge for the Guardians and Chan Clan as Tarakudo himself seems to be able to overpower the WITCH girls relatively easy, and he is even able to bypass the Vale to cross between Earth and Meridian via the Shadow Realm. **

**Now WITCH is about to join the Chan Clan in a world-wide race to stop Tarakudo and Phobos from retrieving the eight remaining Oni masks, while also working to try and save Elyon from this evil duo. What's in store next for our heroes? Find out soon as they try to retrieve the second Oni mask before the Forces of Darkness can. Until then, stay safe and stay healthy out there. **


	21. Samurai and Guardians

**Hi everyone, thanks again for your patience. We are now in the Oni-arc of the story that will also run parallel with the second half of the cannon WITCH season 1. Things are going to get interesting as Phobos and Tarakudo have teamed up and are also hunting the Oni masks. Will our heroes be able to prevail? Let us find out.**

**Samurai and Guardians**

Captain Black sat in his own personal office in Section 13 as he opened a package to find the first Oni mask inside. "Whoa." He certainly did not expect to find a package like this, but he also picked up a note from Jackie inside as well, which he read aloud.

"Captain Black, do not allow anyone to wear this mask. Please lock it in the vault immediately! Uncle, Tohru, Caleb, the girls, and I are currently in Tokyo, Japan; where we hope to discover a lead to the location of the next Oni mask."

* * *

Meanwhile, in Tokyo, the J-WITCH gang was inside a warehouse trying to decipher clues from several scrolls, pictures, or old Japanese tablets inside the warehouse. Though most of them appeared to be doing research, Cornelia was among those who appeared the most bored.

"I can't believe I'm in Tokyo, but I'm stuck here doing research when we could be shopping!" The blonde complained. "Do you have any idea how many kimonos or dresses I could buy here?!"

"We're not on vacation, Cornelia." Will chastised. "We're trying to find information on the Oni."

"And we just so happen to be in an old warehouse looking through dusty scrolls with a language that we can't even read?" Irma questioned irritably.

"Well the samurai _were_ the ones who defeated the Oni in the past, we gotta start somewhere." Will said.

"Any luck, Jackie?" Hay Lin asked as he was attempting to read a scroll.

"Nothing yet." Jackie replied. "Oni have often depicted as ancient myths, so it's hard to separate what is really a myth to reality."

Caleb, meanwhile, found himself looking at an image of a samurai on the wall. "So, these samurai are like knights in Meridian?"

"Sort of." Taranee tried to explain. "I mean, there are similarities, but the samurai have their own unique code, teachings, and fighting techniques."

"Well if there's any left that can help us find where the next Oni masks are, that would be super helpful." Alchemy said. "Especially since most of us can't read any of this stuff."

"I understand why you all feel this way." Jackie said. "But the first rule of research is patience."

"Can you not read faster, Tohru?!" They all heard Uncle complained as the large sumo attempted to decipher a scroll in front of him. "Cobwebs are forming on Uncle!"

"My Japanese is rusty, sensei." Tohru replied.

"At this rate, Forces of Darkness will locate eight other masks before we leave room!" Uncle stated.

"Hey, if you got an easier way to find these mask-things, we're more than happy to hear it!" Cornelia told the elder chi-wizard in irritation.

Will rolled her eyes slightly at the bickering that they were all used to at this point. However, as she did, she noticed a certain someone was missing from their group. "Where's Jade?"

"Everyone! Get over here now!"

They all heard Jade's voice calling them, which immediately put them on alarm as all ten of them ran to the sound of Jade's voice in another room in the warehouse.

"Why do research, when you can come on down to the Oni-Mask-Super-Store!" She announced dramatically as she directed their attention to a wall filled with dozens of colorful Oni souvenir masks. Tohru immediately felt a chill down his spine as Caleb was immediately put on the defensive.

"I thought you said there were only _nine _masks!" The young rebel exclaimed.

"Cool your jets rebel-boy." Irma told him. "These are fakes, just souvenirs."

"Then why do I have a strange, clammy, feeling down my spine?" Tohru asked, surprising Uncle.

"You have the willies?"

"Usually a pretty good sign…" A familiar voice spoke out as one of the masks changed shape and form to reveal a certain floating demon head that they have all recently become acquainted with. "…That the king of all Oni is in the house!"

"Tarakudo!" Everyone exclaimed as all the girls, Jackie, even Caleb, felt a simultaneous shiver down their spines.

"Hello everybody, nice to see you all again." Tarakudo greeted casually as he floated toward the entrance way where Daolong Wong and Cedric, in his humanoid form, walked in. "Oh, and by the way, Prince Phobos sends his regards."

"So those two _are_ working together!" Taranee exclaimed as the group of heroes readied themselves while Will had already pulled out the Heart of Kandrakar.

"**Guardians Unite!" **

In another flash transformation; Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin had transformed into their respective Guardians forms as WITCH.

"Flashy." Tarakudo commented as Cedric had transformed into his massive humanoid snake form while Daolon Wong had summoned his Dark Chi Enforcers.

"**Gan! Ren! Chui!" **Finn, Ratso, and Chow had appeared on the scene as well. "Fetch the mask, minions!" Wong ordered his warriors.

"Uh… which mask?" Ratso asked, considering there was well over several dozen.

"The demonic one!" Cedric hissed before he lunged at the heroes immediately, forcing them to scatter to avoid a devastating punch to the floor.

As the fight began, Will had grabbed both Alchemy and Jade and flew them to a samurai-armor set in the far corner of the room before setting them down. "Stay here, you two!" She told them before flying back into the fight.

Will flew and delivered a flying kick to Cedric's face, though he was quick to recover and smack her back. Jackie, in response, ran up and leapt from a set of armor to land a roundhouse kick to Cedric's chest, knocking him back slightly as Cornelia backed them up by using her powers to pry several wooden boards from the floor and telekinetically smacking them over Cedric's body. This, however, only seemed to irritate the shapeshifter as he roared and swatted his massive hands to knock back the boards before Will and Jackie went on the offensive with their respective martial arts skills.

At the same time, Taranee threw a series of fireballs at Daolon Wong, who erected a barrier of dark chi magic to protect himself before waving his staff to send a series of dark magic bolts at her. Fortunately, Taranee was able to avoid them as she flew higher, which gave Irma an opening to send a column of water straight at Wong, who teleported himself out of the way just in time, only to reappear behind both Irma and Taranee and zap them in the back with his dark chi magic.

Meanwhile, the Dark Chi Enforcers, were essentially looking for a needle in a haystack as they each took off one mask at a time and place it on their own faces, only to find out that mask was a fake.

"That's not it."

"Nope."

"Nuh, uh."

"Not this one."

"That's not it, either."

"I don't think so!" Hay Lin flew in as she blew a gust of wind from her mouth to knock down most of the masks and scatter them across the floor, making it that much more difficult for the Enforcers.

However, she didn't have much time to celebrate as she was blasted back by a telekinetic pulse from Tarakudo, sending her crashing in front of Caleb, who was able to catch Hay Lin before she hit the wall. As the King of Oni loomed over them, Caleb spotted a katana from the set of samurai armor he was closest to and drew the Japanese sword as he stood alongside Hay Lin to face the floating demon head.

"Quickly, Tohru!" Uncle instructed as the pair set down away from the fights in the far corner of the room. "We must devise locator spell so we may find mask before they do!"

As the pair got to work; Will, Cornelia, and Jackie seemed to be an evenly matched fight with Cedric, with Irma and Taranee being on the defensive from Daolon Wong themselves. Yet, as Hay Lin and Caleb attempted to fight Tarakudo, it seemed he was merely playing with the pair as he casually dodged the respective air-blasts and swords trikes.

"Get back! Now!" Caleb exclaimed as he tried to slice the katana at Tarakudo.

"Easy, you can chop someone's head off with that." The Oni King joked with a grin.

Hay Lin sent a gust of wind, which Tarakudo easily avoided before her eyes widened slightly. "Oh, I get it! Cause you're a floating head!" She snickered. "Okay, that is pretty funny."

"Finally, someone who appreciates humor." Tarakudo commented before sending another telekinetic blast to knock back both her and Caleb. He then directed his attention to the Dark Chi Enforcers who were still looking for the correct mask in the pile of souvenir mask on the ground. "What are you doing?" He questioned.

"Uh, looking for the mask." Finn said as though it were obvious.

"Try this fellow." Tarakudo said before he shifted his form to take the appearance of a thin purple mask with bright purple eyes and two curved horns at the top.

Everyone in the room then set their eyes on the actual mask in question, which was still hanging from the wall. Will and Cornelia were among the first to fly and try to get it, but Cedric quickly grabbed them both and threw them away as he tried to slither his way toward it. However, Jackie quickly jumped to land on Cedric's shoulders and use him as a springboard to leap toward the mask. Unfortunately, Daolong Wong had already ensnared it with his dark magic, causing Jackie to land face-first on the wall and slide down.

Daolon Wong smiled evilly as he held the purple Oni mask in his hands. Hay Lin, Taranee, Irma, and Caleb tried to rush in and take it from him, but Tarakudo had unleashed another powerful psychic wave to blast them back.

"Hmm, I wonder what dreaded tribe of Shadowkhan will be at my command. Let us find out." Daolon Wong sneered as he tried to place the mask on his face, only for Alchemy to run up and grab him from behind.

"I don't think so!" She struggled to hold onto Wong who attempted to shake her off. "Jade! Now!"

"Heeya!" Jade came in to deliver a flying kick to Daolon Wong's side, knocking him down and forcing him to drop the mask, only for it to land right onto Ratso's face, much to everyone's shock. "Oopise!" Jade winced.

Just like with Frost before, the purple Oni mask had merged with Ratso's face and wrapped around his whole head. But that wasn't the only change, as his glowing blue marks on his body from a Dark Chi Warrior had turned pitch black as both dark powers merged together before the newly transformed Ratso stood up.

"Whoa…" Even Ratso was surprised at his newfound power he felt flowing through him.

"So, wait, now he's a Dark Chi warrior _and _an Oni demon?" Will questioned in confusion.

"Man, talk about an evil-on-evil sandwich." Irma commented.

Meanwhile, Tohru was still in the middle of making his locator-spell, only for Uncle to deliver a dope-slap. "Ow!"

"Too late for locator-spell, we need _mask-removal_-spell." Uncle stated as he drew a katana from a set of samurai armor, they just so happened to be near. "Good thing, Japanese steel ingredient, very handy this time."

"Oh man…" Oni-Ratso looked at himself with an excited smile. "I feel like…"

"Summoning Shadowkhan?" Tarakudo hinted toward him.

"Yeah!" Oni-Ratso was already on-board, but one problem, he had no idea how to do it. "So, do I just yell for them or what?"

"You must feel the power, Ratso!" Tarakudo instructed. "Call upon the darkness within."

"Oh, okay, I got it." Oni-Ratso said as he tried to do just that, only for Jackie to try and grab him from behind.

"No! No feeling! No calling!" Jackie tried to stop him, only for Oni-Ratso to grab him by the shirt and throw him away with little effort at all. Caleb tried to catch Jackie as he flew, only for both of them to crash into the wall on impact.

Will, Irma, Hay Lin, Cornelia, and Taranee tried to fly in and blast their respective elements at Ratso in a desperate attempt to stop him; but Daolon Wong had already erected a dome of dark magic around Ratso to protect him from the attack as Finn, Chow, and Cedric stood in front of the Guardians to stop their approach.

"Why not even the odds a little bit?" Cedric hinted to Oni-Ratso. "Let's say, one Shadowkhan for every Guardian here?"

Oni-Ratso only smirked as he tried to do as Tarakudo, and Cedric told him. "Come on Shadowkhan!" He concentrated as everyone directed their attention to five shadow-spots on the ground as five identical figures emerged from the ground to present themselves to the heroes and villains around.

They were definitely Shadowkhan, but nothing like the ones they've seen before. They were much thinner, with pointed heads, and each one had a single red V-shaped eye. They had pointed legs as well, but what stood out the most, were their hands that each had a set of five giant razor-sharp blades, which glistened in the light.

"Whoa…" Jade gulped as all the heroes looked nothing short of stunned.

"That's… different…" Cornelia commented.

Though the villains were surprised as well, they were more impressed and intrigued than anything else.

"Most impressive." Daolon Wong said with a sneer.

"Sweet." Chow commented.

"Go, Ratso." Finn nodded in approval.

"Nine masks, nine different tribes of Shadowkhan." Tarakudo said as they all got a good look at this new Shadowkhan.

"Uncle, how is your mask-removal-spell, coming?" Jackie asked anxiously as Tohru dipped the katana into the cauldron and was already glowing green with magic.

"All done!" Uncle stated as Tohru wielded the sword and pointed it at Oni-Ratso, only for the glow to vanish almost instantly.

"Nothing's happening…? Why isn't anything happening?!" Caleb questioned.

"The sword did not work, sensei!" Tohru said in alarm.

"It must be wrong ingredient!" Uncle stated as he came to a sudden realization. "Each mask must require a _unique _removal spell!"

"Well what do we need to remove _this _mask?" Will questioned the chi-wizard, only to receive a dope-slap to her forehead. "OW!"

"Tohru is Japanese expert, that is _his _department!" Uncle criticized. Everyone looked at Tohru, expectantly, only for the large sumo to shrug, indicating he had no idea what to do at the moment.

"Ahem." Tarakudo cleared his throat aloud to get the villains' attention, specifically Oni-Ratso as he motioned for him to move.

"Oh, right." Oni-Ratso said before turning to his quintet of Shadowkhan minions. "Make papa proud!"

The new Shadowkhan brandished their claws as they went on the attack. "You guys hit him high, I'll hit him low!" Jade stated, only for Jackie to push her away as one Shadowkhan went directly at him, prompting Will to fly in and assist, while the remaining four went after Cornelia, Hay Lin, Irma, and Taranee respectively.

Hay Lin tried to blast a torrent of wind at the Shadowkhan she was facing, only for it to leap and crawl on the ceiling with its claws and spiked legs. Once it was over her, it let itself fall down to slice at her, but she was able to push herself back with a gust of wind and avoid the claw-strike that hit the ground.

"These Razor Khan are a lot tougher than the normal Shadowkhan!" Hay Lin stated.

"Razor Khan?" Irma questioned as she sent a stream of water at the one Razor Khan facing her, but it ducked underneath the water streak, while also slicing at it with its claws to halt the attack as it rushed Irma before she flew into the air to join Hay Lin.

"You know, because they got razor-sharp claws." Hay Lin said. "Razor… Shadowkhan… Razor Khan!"

"Okay, I get it." Irma said irritably as they flew back down to engage the two Razor Khan they were previously fighting.

Taranee tried to throw a series of fireballs at an individual Razor Khan, but it easily sliced through the flames with its claws before leaping at her to slice at Taranee, though she ducked under the slice, she fell back on her rear to avoid the kick from the pointed-foot that would have pierced her face before flying back to avoid the relentless slashes from her enemy.

Cornelia tried the same approach she did with Cedric as she used her powers to raise wooden floorboards from the ground and throw them at the charging Razor Khan, but it easily sliced the boards to reduce them to splinters in seconds before trying to move in and slash Cornelia. Fortunately, Caleb came to her defense with his katana to block the slice before swinging and parrying the sword against the claws of the Razor Khan.

Jackie was backed against the wall and swiftly dodged the impaling strike from the fifth Razor Khan. Will quickly flew in to back him up with a solid kick to its chest, though it slid back slightly, it's pointed feet imbedded in the ground to stabilize itself before leaping at Will to slice at her. Acting on instinct, she brandished the Heart just as the claws made contact, resulting in a pink flare to burst from the jewel, blasting her and the Razor Khan back. However, the Razor Khan appeared to recover first as it attempted to rush Will, but Jackie leapt in front of it to divert its attention as he was forced on the defensive from its relentless slashes.

The villains, meanwhile, continued to watch with smirks on their faces. "Just five of these new Shadowkhan alone are a handful for the Guardians, Chan, and their allies." Cedric mused evilly.

"Just imagine what the remaining seven tribes are capable of." Wong sneered.

"Come, then. Let us seek more masks." Tarakudo instructed as he, Cedric, Daolon Wong, Finn, and Chow made their leave. "While Ratso summons more Shadowkhan."

Oni-Ratso chuckled eagerly. "The more, the scarier." He began to concentrate as he attempted to summon more of his new minions.

Irma and Hay Lin found themselves literally cornered against two Razor Khan as they desperately combined their powers to create a miniature storm in their hands before unleashing the powerful attack, which the two Razor Khan were unable to avoid. The attack was successful in blasting back and destroying the pair.

"It worked!" Irma said in genuine surprise before a smile formed. "We can take these things down!"

"Hey guys!" Hay Lin called to her friends who were still in the middle of their own fights. "These Razor Khan go poof like normal Shadowkhan! Just hit them real hard!"

"Yeah, easier said than done though!" Cornelia exclaimed as she flew in to help Caleb who was on the defensive with his katana against the relentless claw-slashes of one Razor Khan. She concentrated her powers on the floor underneath the Razor Khan before suddenly opening them up like a springboard to knock it into the air before it fell back down where Caleb ran up to impale it with his katana, resulting in it poofing.

Taranee didn't have as much luck however against her Razor Khan opponent, no matter what kind of fire-attack she unleashed, her enemy could either slice through it or fan it away with its claws, or simply leap up and climb on the wall to avoid it. It leapt down from the side wall to slash and knock her down. The Razor Khan was ready to finish her, but before it could…

"Oh, mister ninja!" Uncle called to get the Razor Khan's attention as he aimed his blowfish at it. "Eat chi-magic!" He scored a direct hit of chi-blast on the Razor Khan's chest, though it knocked it back, it didn't destroy it like the previous Shadowkhan.

"Why didn't anything happen?" Taranee questioned in surprise.

"Uncle's regular magic does not work on these new Shadowkhan!" Uncle stated, sounding just as surprised as Taranee. "We must devise new stun-spell!"

Fortunately, they wouldn't have to right away, just as the Razor Khan was about to re-engage Taranee in battle, a blade had pierced through its chest from behind, destroy it instantly. The culprit being Jade. "Guess he got the point." She smirked.

However, Will and Jackie had found themselves cornered against the final Razor Khan opponent. However, before it could make a fatal move, or any of their friends could come in and help, they all turned around in surprise to see a set of samurai armor moving on its own. It drew its katana to challenge and face the Razor Khan, who in turn, leapt up to slash at the mysterious enemy. When the Razor Khan landed behind, the armor fell apart to reveal it was none other than Alchemy in the armor, despite her size.

Jackie, Will, Taranee, Uncle, Tohru, Cornelia, Irma, Hay Lin, Caleb, and even Jade's jaws dropped in complete and total shock.

Alchemy chuckled nervously as the Razor Khan looked directly at her. "Sayonara." She said to it as she attempted to run, only for the Razor Khan to try and leap at her. Fortunately, Hay Lin had already come in to blow it back with a blast of air while it was still airborne, sending it to Caleb who sliced with his katana to destroyed it.

"Darkness within… Darkness within… Darkness within…" Oni-Ratso chanted as he attempted to summon more Razor Khan, but he was suddenly grabbed and tackled by Will and Tohru as they each used their respective strength to try and stop him. However, he merely flexed his arms to knock both of them off as his own unnatural strength as a Dark Chi warrior was further enhanced by the power of the Oni-mask he was wearing.

But that didn't stop Taranee, Hay Lin, and Irma from flying in and unleashing a powerful attack that combined their respective elements to trap Oni-Ratso in a vortex of fire, wind, and water. "I don't even think this is gonna stop him!" Taranee exclaimed.

"We need to fall back and regroup!" Caleb stated. "Come up with a new plan to get that mask off!"

"Agreed, come on!" Jackie said as he, Caleb, Cornelia, Jade, Uncle, and Alchemy were about to make a run for it with Will helping Tohru back on his feet to join them. However, they didn't get very far as Irma, Hay Lin, and Taranee were all sent flying back towards the wall, courtesy of Oni-Ratso who held his massive mallet he wields as a Dark Chi warrior, only for the aura to change from blue to black as he smiled evilly at the group.

"Uh oh." Jade winced.

***BOOM!***

A large black shockwave was seen from the upper level of the outside of the building as all eleven heroes were sent flying and falling toward the street below. However, the five Guardians were able to stabilize themselves as they tried to move in and grab their falling friends. Will caught Uncle, Taranee was able to catch Jackie, Irma caught Caleb, and Hay Lin grabbed Jade and Alchemy. Cornelia attempted to fly and catch Tohru, but he proved too heavy as she only altered his fall path as they both fell into a nearby stand on the street filled with raw fish.

"Ew! Ew! Ew! Ew!" Cornelia shivered as she and Tohru tried to pull themselves out, both covered in raw fish.

"I hate fish." Tohru winced, feeling the same way.

Despite that, they were able to regroup with the rest of their friends and escape just as Oni-Ratso looked out the hole in the wall he made with his attack. "Hey!" He looked around to see everyone had vanished from sight. "Where'd everybody go?"

* * *

Meanwhile, on a separate rooftop, Daolon Wong had used a dark orb to observe the fight along with Cedric, Finn, and Chow.

"The Guardians and Chan, forced to retreat, from only a handful of these new Shadowkhan." Cedric hissed with a sadistic smile. "I can only wait in joyous anticipation as our new minions literally rip the Rebellion to shreds!"

"And, there are seven more masks, each with their own unique tribe of Shadowkhan." Wong was just as elated as his comrade. "So much power, Prince Phobos will be most pleased."

"A job well done, boys." Tarakudo told the group of villains as he hovered over them. "For our next trick…" Suddenly, Tarakudo's entire body, which was only his head, had shivered, much to the surprise of the villains.

"Whoa, are you alright?" Chow asked.

"What is it, big kahuna?" Finn also asked.

"I think I… have the willies." Tarakudo replied, sounding just as surprised himself.

* * *

Meanwhile, the heroes have all regrouped in their hotel room, with the Guardians having turned back into their human forms as Jackie prepared dinner, already chopping an onion. "Well, that was a total bust." Cornelia sulked as she sat on a bed.

"Don't sugarcoat it, we got our asses handed to us." Irma stated. "How are we supposed to fight these Razor Khan if we don't know how to take off that stupid mask?!"

"And if each of the other masks have their own unique removal spell…" Will said as a dreadful realization set in. "…The odds of us actually winning this thing are pretty low."

"The Oni have to have some kind of weakness!" Caleb stated, unwilling to give up. "They were beaten before! If we figure out how those ancient samurai did it, we can do it to!"

"Well if you got any ideas, we're all ears." Alchemy said before she noticed the sheathed katana on his back. "Hey, isn't that the same sword from the warehouse?"

"Yeah, I like it." Caleb said as he glanced with a small smirk at the katana that he had now taken for himself.

"How's your research coming?" Cornelia asked Taranee and Tohru as they were each on a laptop and scroll respectively.

"I'm not really getting anything." Taranee said in annoyance as she scrolled the internet. "Whenever I try to look up anything Oni-related, I always get something from anime or an ancient myth that I can't even read. What about you, Tohru?"

"I think I might have found something." Tohru said, getting everyone's attention. Tohru used a magnifying glass to try and decipher the kanji. "The scroll speaks of the legendary Hanafuda, an ancient deck of cards. My mother told me of these cards when I was young."

Uncle however seemed skeptical. "More fairy tales, cards not important!"

"You said the Oni were fairy tales, and you were wrong about that." Cornelia criticized.

"But how can a deck of cards help us fight these Oni-monsters?" Caleb questioned, sounding somewhat skeptical himself.

"The legend indicates that the cards are magic and may point the way to the remaining Oni masks." Tohru answered.

"Does it say anything about us actually _beating_ the Oni?" Will asked.

"Not sure … I haven't read the entire scroll yet." Tohru answered.

"Well its better than nothing." Hay Lin said. "So where are we gonna find these cards?"

However, Uncle remained firmed in his skepticism. "I am telling you all, cards not important!"

Suddenly, Tohru felt a chill down his spine, something they all noticed. "Tohru?" Jackie asked.

"Let me guess, your old pal, willie?" Jade asked as well.

The entire room became quiet as everyone had a good idea what Tohru getting the willies meant. Tohru was the first to glance at a framed drawing of an ancient Japanese warrior on the wall, with everyone else following his gaze to look at it. They all gasped as they saw the eyes on the picture move.

Suddenly, the face on the picture shifted and changed to reveal Tarakudo himself as he entered the room, much to everyone's fright as they stood up on instinct. "So, hoping to find the Hanafuda Cards? Well I can't let you do that!" Tarakudo then began to use his powers to shake up the entire room as though it were hit by a sudden earthquake.

"Looks like it's not all fairy tales after all!" Irma said, casting a glare to the shocked Uncle.

"Okay… maybe cards important…" Uncle admitted.

"Yeah, about you just shut up now about anything Oni-related from now on!" Cornelia told him as the entire apartment continued to shake from Tarakudo's power.

As the group backed against the wall, Tohru glanced back at the counter to see the half-chopped onion Jackie was previously working on. Will tried to reach and grab the Heart of Kandrakar to fight as Caleb was reaching for his katana, but Tohru was already at the front as he brandished the onion.

"Back!" He told the floating demon head.

"An onion?!" Caleb, Hay Lin, Taranee, and Cornelia all questioned at the same time.

"What are you gonna do, make him cry?" Irma asked sarcastically.

"Yes, do not be foolish Tohru!" Uncle also said. "Use _garlic._"

"He's a demon, not a vampire!" Alchemy said. "Don't you use _salt_ for demons?"

However, the apartment suddenly stopped shaking as Tarakudo actually looked nervous. "Whoa, easy with that veggie, big fella!"

Tohru then threw the onion at Tarakudo's face. The second it made contact; the demon closed his eyes in pain as green energy poured out of them like tears. "Ugh! My eyes! My eyes!"

"Wait, he really _is _crying?" Irma asked as everyone looked nothing short of stunned at what just happened.

"It _does _work." Tohru said in genuine surprise as well.

"I think it is check-out time." Jackie urged as the entire group left the room while Tarakudo continued to holler and cry in pain.

* * *

"Okay… how exactly does a vegetable hurt a floating demonic head?" Caleb questioned as the group of heroes were already outside.

"Mommy always told me onions keep the Oni away." Tohru answered. "I used to sleep with one under my pillow."

"So it really _is _like garlic for vampires." Hay Lin said with a smile.

"Instant Oni-repellent." Will smirked as she and everyone else gave Tohru literal congratulatory pats on the back.

"You the man, T! You the man!" Jade praised.

The only one who wasn't praising appeared to be Uncle has he stopped briefly. "Yes, he is." He admitted with a tone that mixed pride and sadness.

* * *

"The best thing about making your own team of ninjas… Is making enough for _two _teams!" Oni-Ratso said excitedly as he had summoned enough Razor Khan for a game of baseball on the rooftop he was on. He held a bat at the ready as a Razor Khan pitched the ball, which Oni-Ratso hit and sent flying for at least a mile. "Oooh! High fly!"

On the side, Finn and Chow watched with smirks as this was unsurprising of their friend, though Wong and Cedric both looked unamused.

"He wields the power to summon his own army of powerful soldiers who will serve your every whim, and he uses it to play these childish games." Cedric hissed in disapproval.

"Oh, ball boy!" Oni-Ratso called to Cedric specifically, and this only served to anger the shapeshifter even further as he loomed over Oni-Ratso.

"You listen to me you, worthless fool!" Cedric warned, in his giant humanoid-snake form. "I am a lord of Meridian! I am the right hand to Prince Phobos! My name strikes fear into the heart of the Rebellion!" He looked at Oni-Ratso right into his eyes. "You do _not _order me!"

Suddenly, most of the Razor Khan leapt and surrounded him, many already brandishing their claws threateningly at the shapeshifter, much to his surprise.

"You don't wanna spoil our fun. Do you, Cedric?" Oni-Ratso warned, his voice becoming deeper and sounding more demonic. This tone was enough to make Cedric sweat a bit as he looked more than a little nervous.

Even Finn and Chow were somewhat surprised by this. "Um, big D… why does Ratso sound so… scary?" Finn asked Daolon Wong.

"The Oni mask contains the spirit of the original Oni demon inside." Wong explained. "More than likely, it is already corrupting Ratso to turn him into a near duplicate of that very same demon." Both Chow and Finn looked to each other with concern, not liking the idea of their friend being turned into a demon.

"Ratso!" Everyone looked up to see Tarakudo appear out of thin air to address Oni-Ratso in particular. "Gather your shadow-minions. You must see to it that Mr. Chan and the young Guardians fail to acquire a certain… deck of cards."

Oni-Ratso held his bat in dark anticipation. "Let the games begin."

* * *

The group of heroes were already in Tokyo's underground subway station, waiting for a specific train as Tohru relayed instructions that he read from the scroll.

"We must take the train to Matsue." Tohru explained. "The Hanafuda Cards are housed in an ancient shrine there. Legend indicates, that the cards contain the spells which originally defeated the Oni."

"Looks like we found their weakness." Irma said with a smirk.

A train had arrived at the tracks behind them, with Uncle turning around to enter it as the doors opened up. "Oh, Uncle, that is not our train." Jackie told him.

"It is mine." Uncle said as he turned around to face the group. "Uncle must go to airport, now."

That took all of them by surprise.

"What?!" Will and Jackie both questioned as Tohru, Irma, Taranee, Hay Lin, and Alchemy all gave surprised gasps

"Huh?" Even Caleb seemed somewhat confused.

"Alright, bye-bye." Cornelia smiled as she was already waving good-bye. "Have a safe flight." She was quick to receive an elbow to the side from Jade. "Ow!"

"Uncle, why?" Jade asked.

"Being away from shop for so long makes me… nervous…?" He tried, but nobody seemed to buy it.

"Uncle." Jackie said, wanting him to give an honest answer.

Uncle sighed. "I am only getting in your way. Tohru has knowledge of Japanese legends, which Uncle does not. Tohru gets willies from Oni, which Uncle does not. Tohru knows tricks with vegetables, which Uncle does…"

"Please Sensei, I require your guidance." Tohru pleaded.

"Yeah, so what if you don't know anything about the Oni? You can still fight." Taranee told him.

"I offer you all, my confidence." Uncle assured with a smile as he turned around to walk into the train.

"Uncle, wait!" He heard Hay Lin call to him from behind, but when he turned back around, he was caught off-guard by Hay Lin giving him a surprise-hug. Uncle gave a small hug back before pulling away and looking at Hay Lin with a smile. "You are truly Yan Lin's granddaughter." He smiled as he ruffled her hair slightly before walking into the train.

"Jade, Alchemy, you two should go with Uncle." Jackie told the two girls.

"Aah." Jade groaned as she and Alchemy appeared to walk toward the train just as the doors closed. Uncle gave a final wave to everyone, which they all responded with a wave of their own before the train departed.

"I miss him already." Alchemy said, revealing that neither she, nor Jade, have gotten onto the train.

"Jade! Alchemy!" Jackie chastised. "I told you to go with Uncle! Not stay with…" He soon realized that he didn't specify _which _uncle. "…Uncle." He smacked his forehead.

Jade gave a slight tisk. "No wonder I got confused, too many uncles."

"And I don't have _any _uncles, so…" Alchemy added with a shrug.

Most of the girls seemed amused, though Will noticed a smile on Cornelia's face, resulting in her scowling. "Geeze Cornelia, try not to cry _too _much!"

"What? It wasn't like he was actually helpful on this whole trip!" Cornelia replied. "He was wrong about Tarakudo being an Oni, he was wrong about the Shadowkhan being Japanese, and he was wrong about those Hanafuda Cards!"

"But he's a still a kick-ass wizard." Irma stated. "Even if he is crabby-grouchy most of the time."

"I'm gonna have to agree with Cornelia on this." Caleb said, much to most of the group's surprise. "Don't get me wrong, he is a capable fighter, I've seen that. But, like both he and Cornelia have said, his skills and resources don't seem to apply the Oni that much, that's not to say he _can't _contribute at all. He's just unable to for this specific mission. In the rebellion, if someone can't contribute to the mission, we send them back to base until their ready."

"Well, when you put it like that, I guess it _does_ make sense." Taranee admitted.

Will noticed a light coming from the end of the tunnel. "Hey, I think our train's here."

"All aboard…" They all looked on the other side of the track in shock to see Oni-Ratso waiting for them. "…The Shadowkhan express!"

Jade quickly reached into her pocket to pull out an onion. "Gonna make you cry, demon boy!" She threw the onion at him, only for Oni-Ratso to catch and eat it with no issue at all.

"Hmm, yummy."

Everyone looked in surprise before looking to Tohru for an explanation. "Uh… Ratso is still part Dark Chi warrior, which isn't vulnerable to onions, and he also happens to _like _them?" He said, sounding rather unsure himself.

Fortunately, a fight would not have to break out as the train had already arrived for the heroes. "Quick! Inside!" Jackie said, the second the doors opened. The whole J-WITCH crew wasted no time in entering the train.

Oni-Ratso attempted to open the doors on the other end, but they wouldn't budge, and he didn't even get the chance to smash his way in as the train was already moving, forcing him to let go as it already rode deep into the tunnels.

"Darkness within. Darkness within. Darkness within. Darkness within" Oni-Ratso chanted as he summoned a single Razor Khan minion. "You have a train to catch!" He told the Razor Khan as it ran into the tunnel at incredible speeds to catch it.

Back in the train, the heroes had already sat down in the back car when Alchemy noticed the Razor Khan catching up with them. "Uh guys, we got company!"

Everyone looked in alarm as the Razor Khan leapt up to the train, landing upside down, using his pointed-feet to pierce the haul and hang on as it used its claws to try and pry the door open.

"Heh, heh, here's Khanny…" Irma chuckled nervously as the Razor Khan had entered the car.

"Uh, Will, time to Guardian-up!" Cornelia urged as they backed away from the approaching enemy.

"We can't!" Will stated. "The car's too narrow! If we used our powers, we could tear the whole train apart!"

"Then Caleb and I will handle this." Jackie said as he and Caleb were at the front, the young rebel already drawing his katana as he slashed and hacked at the Razor Khan, who ducked and used its claws to block and parry each strike. Jackie stuck to Caleb's side as the young rebel used his sword similar to a shield's purpose to block the Razor Khan's strikes, while Jackie attacked with a series of kicks.

However, the Razor Khan attempted a kick of its own, forcing Jackie and Caleb to separate to the car's sides as the Razor Khan attempted to pierce Caleb with his claws, but he ducked underneath the strike as Jackie had already leapt to the ceiling and dropped down to deliver a kick to its chest to get it to slide back. By the time the Razor Khan had recovered, both Jackie and Caleb had leapt into the air to deliver a flying-double-kick combo move to send it flying back out through the door and out of the car. At least that was their intent, but the Razor Khan had used its claws on the ceiling to keep itself from flying out.

The Razor Khan attempted to climb its way back in, but Tohru brandished a blowfish and shot a chi-blast to send it flying out of the train. Everyone looked to Tohru with surprise.

"Uncle told me to devise a new stun-spell, so I did." Tohru said as he rubbed the back of his head.

"See, Tohru?" Cornelia told him. "You got this. We can handle this just fine with you."

Though they were all grateful for Tohru's aid and can see that he has improved, most didn't miss the subtle hint Cornelia laid in her message that implied they can handle this just fine _without _Uncle.

* * *

After arriving at Matsue, Tohru had led the group to their destination. "This is it." Only their destination was not a shrine, but rather a car factory.

"This is a shrine?" Caleb questioned.

"If it was, it is a factory now." Jackie replied.

"Guess that's the price to pay for being in modern times." Taranee commented.

"So what? We're at a dead end?" Irma asked.

"Wait…" Tohru got another look at the scroll as he saw a familiar symbol on it as well as the building. "This Kanji meaning 'Hanafuda' is also the factory, logo."

Inside the factory, although all the employees had gone home for the evening, the president of the company continued to work in his personal office when he heard someone calling for assistance outside.

"Hello! Is anyone here?!" Will called as she, and all her friends walked inside the factory.

The president of the company walked out to greet them. "Oh, you do not worry here."

"No, sorry to barge in like this." Hay Lin apologized.

"Maybe you can help us, sir." Jackie said.

"We're looking for some… cards." Tohru said.

"_Hanafuda_ Cards?" The president asked as he pointed past the glass walls of his office to reveal a set of framed cards, with each card having the Hanafuda Kanji written on the back.

"Those would be the ones." Jade confirmed.

* * *

Uncle continued to ride silently in the train heading toward the airport when he felt an odd vibration in his pocket. He reached inside to look in surprise to see a cellphone vibrating in his hands, the caller ID on the screen reading 'grandma.'

With confusion and hesitance at first, Uncle answered. "Hello?"

"_Hello Jin."_

Uncle's eyes widened in surprise. "Yan Lin? How did you call me? And why do I have portable phone?"

"_Hay Lin texted me with Jade's phone." _Yan Lin explained. _"She said she gave you her cellphone before you left."_

The elder chi-wizard looked in a state of surprised realization, remembering when Hay Lin hugged him before they left. That must have been when she slipped her cell phone into his pocket. Uncle chuckled slightly. "She is more like you than I could have anticipated."

He heard Yan Lin's laugh on the other line before she spoke. _"But enough of that, Hay Lin said you left and are planning on coming back home."_

Uncle sighed. "I am only getting in their way. Tohru possess knowledge of Oni, which I do not."

"_That doesn't mean you aren't able to help or contribute." _Yan Lin told him. _"Jin, you are an amazing martial artist and an exceptional wizard. And this wouldn't be the first time, remember everything back when we rolled with Cassidy and the others in our youth? You may not have used any magic back then, but you always learned from your experiences and tried new methods. You contributed and even proved capable of saving not just each of our lives, but the lives of many others. I don't believe these situations are any different."_

Uncle couldn't help but reminisce all the time he spent with Yan Lin and her team of Guardians in their youth. Those were some fond memories, even if he didn't get along with Kadma or even… _her_.

"_If you truly wish to leave and return home, I won't stop you." _Yan Lin continued. _"Just be certain that it's really what you want, Jin. Even if you don't know much about the Oni, that doesn't mean you can't help them. They might even need you."_

Uncle smiled at this assurance. "Yan Lin… thank you."

"_Always happy to help." _She replied.

"One more thing…" Uncle began. "How are you convincing girls' parents while they are in Tokyo?"

"_Never underestimate the craftiness of a grandma." _Yan Lin answered. _"That and I might have also slipped a chi-spell into their drinks. Don't worry, nothing harmful. Think like the Jedi mind trick, they all just think they're spending the weakened at your place."_

"I do not know Jedi mind trick!" Uncle quickly said. "But I do know to trust you, so again… thank you." He hung up the phone before walking toward the front car. "Conductor! Pull train over!"

* * *

Back in the factory, the president of the car company handed the framed set of cards to Tohru as he finished telling his story to the heroes. "…Thus, the cards were handed down from my ancestors. As you can see, I based my company logo on the Hanafuda Kanji." He showed them the logo on his silk tie. "So, why are you so interested in my family's deck of cards?"

"Um, you wouldn't happen to be familiar with the Oni, would you?" Taranee asked.

"Of course." The president answered. "My grandmother would read me stories when I was a child. Why?"

"Some very dangerous Oni demons, along with other monsters, want to steal your cards." Caleb said bluntly.

Most of the girls, including Jackie, all winced as Irma pinched the bridge of her nose. "Three, two, one…"

The president responded with a laugh as though they had just told him a joke. "Oni are not real. They are stuff of children's tale." Suddenly, he gave a frightened gasp.

"What is it?" Jackie asked urgently.

"That girl… her shadow…!" He pointed to Alchemy as her shadow began to move and grow in size, causing everyone to look in alarm.

"Uh oh…" Alchemy said in fright as a Razor Khan emerged from her shadow.

The president backed away in fear, only to end up backing into Oni-Ratso who glared down at him. "Hiya."

"ONI!" The president screamed as he ran away and past the group, only to bump literally into the Razor Khan, who slashed his claws to sever the president's silk tie just to intimidate him even further, and it worked as he screamed. "TAKE THE CARDS! THEY ARE YOURS!" He screamed as he ran out of the building.

"Hand them over!" Oni-Ratso demanded.

Tohru handed the frame to Jackie as he took Jade and Alchemy and walked away, while the girls and Caleb stuck close to Jackie, who handed the frame to Oni-Ratso. "Here you go."

"Oh, gee thanks." Oni-Ratso said, only to see the cards were no longer in the frame. "Hey!"

"Sorry! We will not return them! Thank you!" Jackie called as he, Caleb, and the girls all tried to run away.

Oni-Ratso slammed the frame onto the ground. "Get those cards!"

In less than a second, all seven of the present heroes found themselves completely surrounded by more than two dozen Razor Khan. Jackie made a combat stance as Caleb drew his katana-sword, and Will took out the Heart of Kandrakar. **"Guardians Unite!"**

* * *

As the fight began outside; Tohru, Jade, and Alchemy hid in the president's office. "He fell for it." Alchemy whispered with a smirk.

"The old fake-hand-off never fails." Jade smirked as well.

"A mask-removal-spell is the only way to stop Ratso's Razor Khan for good." Tohru said as he placed the cards on the floor and spread them out, only to reveal that they were blank.

"They're all blank?" Alchemy questioned in surprise.

"Did the scroll say anything about how to play?" Jade asked Tohru.

"No." The sumo answered.

"Then we need to figure out how to play. Fast." Jade stated.

* * *

Cornelia pressed her hand on the ground to shake up the floor as four Razor Khan attempted to approach her. "We're on solid ground. You guys are on my turf, now!" She said as four large roots shot from the ground straight at the Razor Khan. The front two were destroyed on impact, but the two in the back used their claws to slice through the roots before leaping up to try and leap down with their spiked-feet onto Cornelia, who flew into the air as she pulled some of the ground up with her in the form of two large rocks, which she threw at the Razor Khan to crush them. But she didn't have time to celebrate as two more climbed up the wall to leap and slice at her.

Irma shot a condensed stream of water, putting extra pressure on her attack as she condensed it even further. The stream had impacted and destroyed the front-most Razor Khan, but three more tried to leap and slice at her, forcing her back before one delivered a slicking-kick with its foot to send her crashing back onto the controls, where she accidentally pulled down on a lever to start up the factory.

As the machines got to work on putting together the cars in the factory line, Taranee got an idea as she saw one of the lasers operate. She quickly flew to said laser and channeled as much of her heat-energy into it to shoot a condensed beam of fire from the laser-machine, blasting and destroying six Shadowkhan at once as she continued to turn her makeshift-weapon. But her winning streak wouldn't last for long as one Razor Khan leapt from behind to use its claws and destroy the device, sending Taranee crashing to the ground before she shot a fireball on instinct to blast a Razor Khan that was on top of her before flying back into the air.

Caleb was forced onto the factory line as he stood with his katana on a moving and incomplete car to slice and parry the strikes from two Razor Khan. He noticed the top of the car coming down as he got an idea and jumped backwards just as the top was brought down to destroy the two Razor Khan before climbing up to the top, only to be put on the defensive as three more enemies surrounded him.

Hay Lin tried to create a powerful whirlwind to blast back five approaching Razor Khan, but they all dug in their claws and feet to keep themselves from being blown away. Hay Lin looked in irritation, until she spotted a nearby toolbox, which she used to levitate with her wind powers from one hand before throwing it at the group of Razor Khan. The tools all spilled out as they hit and destroyed one Razor Khan, but her attempt had also split her focus and lightened her attack, allowing the remaining four to get close and slice at her with their claws and feet, knocking Hay Lin into a car that had just brought its top down. She gave a brief sigh of relief, thinking she was safe, only to be proven dead wrong as she was stuck avoiding all the blades that pierced through the top.

Jackie back-flipped onto the conveyer belt, with three Razor Khan following him. He leapt onto one incomplete car, timing it just right as the three pursuing Razor Khan leapt onto the car, only to be destroyed as the top was brought down.

"Bye-bye! Drive safely!" Jackie told them, only to find two Razor Khan blocking his path.

Will had pulled off a car-door and used her strength to wield it like a blunt weapon to destroy one Razor Khan before seeing the situation Jackie was in and flew to provide aid.

"Hey!" Will called to the two Razor Khan. "Watch the door-dings!" She slammed the car door onto the face of one Razor Khan to destroy it, only to then use it like a shield to block the claw-strikes from the second one. But this gave Jackie an opportunity to deliver a kick to the Razor Khan into the path of a laser on the factory-line, destroying it.

"We're getting nowhere fast!" Will told Jackie as they came back-to-back with six more Razor Khan appearing to surround them. "Let's hope Tohru figures out how to stop these things!"

* * *

Meanwhile, Tohru, Jade, and Alchemy did their best to play or rearrange the cards in whatever pattern they could think of. But none of the methods they tried so far have produced any results.

"Looks like Blackjack doesn't work." Alchemy said.

"What about Gin Rummy?" Tohru suggested.

"Let's try… Crazy Eights…" Jade lined up three cards as they suddenly began to glow. "Whoa… Look!" The first card on the left showed an image of the mask they were currently fighting for. "It's showing us the mask!"

"But we already know that part." Tohru said.

The second card showed an image of the mask's location. "This one is showing us where to find… or where we found it…" Alchemy said. "Which means the last one has to show us the mask removal ingredient!"

This was indeed true, as the third card showed them an image of silk being pulled out of a roll, which Tohru recognized. "Japanese silk!"

"You mean, like in a kimono." Jade said.

"Where can we find a kimono at this time of…" Tohru was interrupted by a faint growling coming from behind as the trio turned around in surprise to see Oni-Ratso looming over them.

"Game over."

Tohru was then literally kicked out of the office, while Jackie, the Guardians, and Caleb were stuck fighting off the seemingly endless Razor Khan to help.

"Leave him alone, you bully!" Jade exclaimed as she climbed onto Oni-Ratso and tried to pry the mask off herself, with Alchemy pulling on Oni-Ratso's back in a vein effort to stop him as well.

"Tohru didn't invite me to play cards." Oni-Ratso said as he summoned a ring of Razor Khan to surround him.

"You can play _my _favorite. Go fish!" Tohru brandished his blowfish and prepared to fire a chi-blast, but a Razor Khan emerged from the shadow underneath him to knock Tohru over, forcing him to drop his blowfish as it rolled across the ground.

Tohru would have run to collect it, only for the blowfish to stop at the feet of a familiar old man, who picked it up and connected it to his own blowfish to replicate the stun-spell. "Hello." Uncle greeted.

"Uncle!" Jade and Hay Lin both exclaimed with wide smiles as everyone looked in surprise to see that Uncle Jin Chan had returned.

All the Razor Khan in the factory ran and charged at Uncle, who wielded both blowfish like a pair of dual pistols and shot at each of the Razor Khan. Each hit was a bullseye that destroyed the struck Razor Khan with a single blast before Uncle leapt back to shoot and destroy two that attempted to leap up at him from the air. He quickly got up to zap another that tried to attack him from the side before Uncle ran along the factory line to shoot and destroy all the remaining Razor Khan with precise shots before he rolled and took a finishing stance with the smoking blowfish in his hands.

"Hmm, very good stun spell." Uncle commented, resulting in Tohru crying tears of joy at that praise.

"Okay, I gotta admit, that was pretty badass." Cornelia admitted with an impressed smirk, shared by everybody else who were glad to have Uncle back.

"Yeah?!" Oni-Ratso challenged. "Well I got more ninja-bad-boys where they came from!" He tried to summon more, but Will quickly flew in to tackle Oni-Ratso to the ground.

"I don't think so!" She tried to pin Oni-Ratso to the ground, only for him to effortlessly lift her into the air and throw her hard to the wall. He wouldn't get the time to recover and summon more Razor Khan however as Jackie, Irma, Cornelia, Caleb, and Taranee flew or ran to attack him directly.

"Uncle! You're back!" Jade didn't hesitate to run and hug the elder chi-wizard, followed by Hay Lin to join the hug as he embraced both of them at once. Tohru and Alchemy walked up with smiles of their own.

"Hay Lin, I believe this is yours." Uncle handed back her cell phone as Uncle gave her a wink, prompting her to smile even more.

'_Thank you, Grandma!'_

"You gave him your cell phone?" Alchemy asked Hay Lin in confusion.

"Cell phone not important now!" Uncle got back to the situation at hand. "Did you discover ingredient for mask-removal-spell?"

"Japanese silk?" Tohru hopped Uncle had that clothing on him, but that didn't prove to be the case.

"Blended wool and polyester!" He referred to his vest and shirt respectively. "Uncle does not wear clothes of movie star or male model!"

"Hey, what about a president of a car company?" Alchemy presented the severed tie that belonged to the company's president that still held the Hanafuda Kanji on it.

Oni-Ratso wielded his massive mallet as he swung it to bat the blasts of fire, streams of water, and rocks, shot at him by Taranee, Hay Lin, and Cornelia respectively as they flew around him to keep their distance. Caleb attempted to run and slice his katana at him from behind, but Oni-Ratso leapt high into the air to avoid the strike before falling and bringing down his mallet onto the ground to create a small tremor and send Caleb and Jackie flying to the wall.

Will tried to grab him from behind, but Oni-Ratso easily pried her off with his double-unnaturally-enhanced strength and held her by the throat in one hand as Irma, Taranee, and Cornelia tried to fly in and help her, but Oni-Ratso used his mallet in his other hand to smack and knock all three of them away with one strike before he pinned Will to a girder and tried to strangle her with his bare hands.

"_Nukeru, He Men Ja'aku." _Will glanced to her side as she saw Uncle, Tohru, Jade, Alchemy, and even Hay Lin chanting the spell as Tohru held the silk tie in his hands that was already glowing green. _"Nukeru, He Men Ja'aku. Nukeru, He Men Ja'aku. Nukeru, He Men Ja'aku." _

A beam of green magic shot from the tie, straight for Will's hands, which began to glow with a green aura as well. This surprised Oni-Ratso enough for him to loosen his grip around Will's neck, allowing her to kick him back to get him to let her go completely. She then grabbed his mask and tried to pry it off. Oni-Ratso tried to push against her as he was much stronger, but Will wasn't alone as Jackie and Cornelia came to Will's sides and tried to pull with her; while Caleb, Taranee, and Hay Lin held onto Oni-Ratso from behind and pull back on him.

With a final shove, Will pulled back both her feet and slammed them into Oni-Ratso's chest to add force as she pulled with all her might to finally wretch the mask free from Ratso's face.

"We got it!" Will exclaimed with joy as she held the mask in her hands, much to everyone's relief and joy as most of them all cheered and shouted 'Yes!', sharing high-fives, fist pumps, and even some hugs in the case of Cornelia and Caleb.

Ratso, now returned to a normal Dark Chi warrior groaned as he tried to pull himself up. "I was having the weirdest dream…" Suddenly, an unknown force lifted him in the air telekinetically and pulled him away from the factory.

* * *

Back in Tokyo; Cedric and Daolon Wong waited on the same rooftop, while Finn and Chow just tossed a baseball back and forth to each other right before Ratso was pulled by the invisible force onto the roof.

He pulled himself up to shake the cobwebs before noticing the baseball in his friends' hands. "Ooh, ooh! My turn at bat!"

Tarakudo suddenly appeared from behind him, looking less than pleased. "It would appear Chan and the Guardians possess the cards, since you no longer possess _horns_!"

"Oooh, yeah…" Ratso winced as he felt his forehead, indicating he longer wore an Oni mask. "Heh, heh…" He chuckled nervously.

* * *

The heroes had finally arrived back home in Heatherfield, specifically in Section 13, where they already placed the purple Oni mask on the wall in the vault next to the first one that they got in Hong Kong.

"Two down, seven to go." Jackie said as all of them, including Yan Lin, were present.

"Those are some handsome devils right there." Yan Lin commented. "No pun intended."

"Let's just hope that we actually keep them from anyone's faces." Will said.

"Well, anyone up for some slap-jack?" Jade offered.

"But what's to keep Tarakudo from entering this vault to get the masks himself?" Caleb asked. "Seeing how he can pop up pretty much _anywhere_!"

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that…" Hay Lin began.

* * *

Tarakudo gave a yell as he flew down from the sky and attempted to phase through the walls outside of Section 13, only to slam right into an invisible barrier that caused his eyes to wince as green energy poured out of them like tears.

"Ugh! My eyes! My eyes!" Tarakudo cried out as he vanished from sight.

* * *

"…Oni magic cannot defeat _onion _magic." Hay Lin finished with an Uncle impression as she held an onion in her hand.

"A little trick I learned from my… apprentice." Uncle smiled approvingly to Tohru as everyone else gave him smiles and nods, resulting in Tohru smiling as well and blushing at all their praise.

**Done.**

**That's two Oni masks down, seven to go. Things are certainly going to be interesting going forward as they not only deal with this but also try to handle the Elyon-situation as well. Oh, and Caleb now has a katana, just thought that would be something cool, hope you like it. I also have a few original chapters planned with a special surprise in store that I'm sure you will all enjoy. **

**Until then, stay safe and stay healthy out there. Peace out. **


	22. Walk This Way

**Hi everyone, thanks again for your patience. This is a very interesting chapter that I've been looking forward to writing, particularly toward the end as I have a special twist in mind that could affect my entire series as a whole. You'll see when we get there. Now, with all that being said, let's get started. **

**Walk This Way**

It was a rainy and stormy night in Meridian as Lurdens and soldiers under Phobos' rule worked on a massive wooden crane with a large spike being slowly risen. This was a primitive, yet very large and imposing drill. As the Lurdens and soldiers worked; Caleb and a team of rebels laid in hiding underneath the grass, ready to attack at a moment's notice.

"So Phobos' latest weapon is what? An overgrown gardening tool?" Caleb questioned sarcastically.

"He's looking for tunnels going underneath the Meridian planes and into the castle." Drake, Caleb's fellow rebel and friend, answered.

"We don't have any tunnels, Drake. I wish we did." Caleb replied.

"But if he digs deep enough…"

"I know." Caleb already knew what his comrade was implying. "He can break through into the Infinite City. Is everyone ready?"

"We're all set and ready to move in." Drake replied.

"And everyone has at least one onion?" Caleb asked.

"Yes, but I'm still unsure how an onion of all things is supposed to ward off a floating demon head." Drake said, sounding unsure as he took out an onion from his pocket.

"Don't ask me." Caleb stated. "I gave up trying to understand magic a long time ago."

"But we're still ready nonetheless." Drake said. "What's our signal?"

However, before Caleb could respond, Blunk, who had just stolen some trinkets and trash from the castle, tripped as he tried to run past the rebels, causing him to drop and spill his stolen goods, causing a commotion that got the Lurdens' attention and blew their cover.

"Not what Caleb think!" Blunk quickly tried to make an excuse. "Blunk just doing… metal laundry."

"Looks like that's our signal!" Caleb stated as they heard the alarming roars of the Lurden hordes.

Caleb drew his katana, as the rebels all drew their respective weapons as well and led the charge on the Lurdens and enemy soldiers. They clashed swords, spears, knives, and axes against shields, clubs, other swords and similar weapons. Despite many of the rebels appearing rather young, they were able to hold their own in the fight rather well. All save for Blunk who tried to run and find cover back at the castle of all places.

Meanwhile, at the outer wall of the castle, Cedric, in his human form, observed the fighting but didn't seem remotely concerned about it. He wasn't alone however as a certain floating demon head phased through the stone wall behind him to observe the battle.

"So, this is the rebellion that has been giving you and Phobos trouble this past decade?" Tarakudo asked.

"Indeed." Cedric confirmed. "They've been quite bothersome, even more so since their affiliation with Chan and the Guardians."

"Hmm, perhaps I should test their strength myself." Tarakudo mused, indicating he was looking forward to a fight.

"That won't be necessary, Tarakudo. I have something better in mind." Cedric smiled evilly as he snapped his fingers, allowing a Lurden to walk forward and bring him a chest. Cedric opened to reveal a golden, curved, horn-like instrument.

Back on the battlefield, Caleb had climbed onto the drill's platform and drawn his katana to block and parry the axe-strike from one Lurden before delivering a kick to knock the Lurden down into the water below. A second Lurden tried to impale him with his spear, but Caleb swerved to the side and gave a downward slice to not only cut through the spear but send the Lurden sliding off the ledge.

Caleb took the moment to look at his new weapon. "Swift and light, yet sharp and powerful with enough force…" He smiled. "The samurai sure knew how to make good weapons." However, this left him vulnerable for a third Lurden to hit him from behind with a club and send him falling into the water below.

The second Caleb sank into the water, Cedric had already blown into the horn, while Tarakudo watched with interest. Though Caleb was unable to hear the sound due to being underwater, the second the rebel soldiers and Lurdens all heard it, they instantly stopped fighting.

When Caleb emerged from the water, he was beyond shocked at what he saw. "What…?" Both the Lurdens and his fellow rebels, were in a trance-zombie-like state. Their eyes had grown dull, and they had just stood there, as if nothing in this world mattered to any of them.

"Hmmm, impressive." Tarakudo noted as he saw Cedric put the horn away.

However, neither of them noticed Blunk hiding around the corner behind them as he saw the horn as well. "Oooh, pretty horn for Blunk."

* * *

_Earth – Heatherfield_

Will rode on her bike when she happened to pass by Matt's house as she heard some music coming from his garage. This was enough for her to stop and listen to the music. As she got off her bike, she walked closer and tried to listen more through the closed garage door, smiling and tapping her foot to the rhythm as she felt her own heart pounding with it. Before she knew it, she was already dancing to the rhythm

However, she wasn't expecting the garage door to open, causing her to stumble as the music stopped. "Will?" Matt looked in surprise, clearly not expecting to see her.

"Oh… Matt!" She tried to hide her blush. "Sorry… I… I was just passing through…" She stuttered while also showing her bike. "I heard you guys' playing and well… sorry."

Matt still smiled. "Huh, didn't know we had an audience. No worries."

This caused Will some kind of relief, though she felt a tad embarrassed. "So, you guys done with practice?"

Matt winced slightly. "Nah, one of us had a burrito for lunch…extra beans." He looked to the drummer, who just smiled innocently.

"Okay…" Will backed away, feeling that was a bit TMI. "So… you gut a gig going on soon?"

"Yeah, we're playing at the school Friday night." Matt said. "You wanna go with me?"

Will's smile instantly brightened. "Yes! Heck yes!" She quickly faked a cough and tried to act cool. "I mean… sure, yeah. See yeah there."

"Yeah, see yeah." Matt closed the garage once the air was cleared. With the door closed, Will couldn't resist raising both her fists into the air.

"Looks like you're set for that dance, huh?" A certain black-haired girl observed with crossed arms and a smirk behind Will.

"Oh, big time, Jade." Will's eyes suddenly widened before turning to the girl. "Jade?!"

"Hi Will." She waved causally.

"You… but how… I…" Will stopped her stammering once she remembered just who her friend was. "You just _love _doing that, don't you?"

"Hey, it's my thing." Jade shrugged nonchalantly.

* * *

_Uncle's Rare Finds._

Within the back of the shop, Jackie and Uncle tried to work with the Hanafuda Cards so they could find information on the next Oni mask. They tried to rearrange it in the way Tohru had described it for them as he tried to decipher more of the legend that they had procured from Shendu's palace.

"Nothing." Jackie said as this was the fifth attempt, they tried to rearrange the cards. "Still no sign of the nest Oni Mask."

"Hmm, perhaps the mask itself must be revealed first. Or… the spirit trapped within the mask has a choice over it." Uncle mused.

"Anything from the legend, Tohru?" Jackie asked.

"No." Tohru said as he put the magnifying glass down. "It depicts the defeat of Tarakudo's generals, but it only contains instructions on how the _first_ mask was made."

Jackie took a look at the large tablet himself. "These ridges imply that this tablet is only a piece to something bigger."

"Perhaps Shendu only obtained information on the first Oni mask because he only sought to wield the power of _one _tribe of Shadowkhan." Uncle theorized.

"Why only one? Why not wield them all?" Jackie asked. "If he wanted to rule the Earth, all nine tribes of Shadowkhan could cover the planet in eternal darkness, right?"

"Shendu likely assumed that doing so could risk the return of the Oni." Uncle continued. "He must have destroyed to prevent that happening, as we have seen that Tarakudo could have the power to even rival Shendu himself."

"Which means, the Hanafuda Cards are the only edge we have in our battle against Tarakudo." Tohru said.

"And seeing how Tarakudo is now working with Phobos, they clearly have the advantage." Jackie said with a reluctant sigh. "Why can't fighting the Forces of Darkness ever be simple?"

"If it were so simple, Forces of Darkness could never be real threat." Uncle stated as though it were obvious.

Suddenly, they heard the shop's bell ring as the trio went into the main room to see Caleb, clearly out of breath as he leaned his hands against the front desk, appearing to have run all the way here. "Caleb? What are you doing here?"

"Where are the girls?" Caleb asked, trying to catch his breath. "We have a problem."

* * *

_Silver Dragon_

"Okay, exact words, Will." Taranee said as she, Jade, Irma, Cornelia, Hay Lin, and Alchemy sat at the same table as their leader.

"You wanna go with me?" She repeated Matt's words with a wide smile.

"As an eye-witness, I can confirm that myself." Jade said.

"Date. Definitely, a date." Hay Lin immediately said with the other girls voicing their agreements as well. Will, meanwhile, had a love-struck smile as the image of Matt playing the guitar was all she could think about right now.

"I cannot believe Will has a date to the dance, and I don't." Cornelia said in an annoyed tone.

"Cause maybe you're too high maintenance?" Jade joked.

"Burn!" Irma chuckled as she and Jade shared a high-five while Cornelia glared at the pair.

"Ah don't worry, Cornelia." Alchemy tried to console her friend. "I'm sure you'll find a guy who'd love to go with you."

Almost directly on cue, the door to the restaurant opened as Jackie, Uncle, Tohru, and Caleb at the restaurant. "Girls. We have a situation." Jackie said, getting all their attention.

"Oh yes we do." Cornelia smirked as she stood up and walked toward a certain young rebel. "Dance this Friday, but I don't have a date." She cast a glance at Caleb. "Oh, if there was only a certain rebel who would be willing to ask… OW!"

"Now is not time to worry about silly dance!" Uncle chastised Cornelia after dope-slapping her.

"What's going on?" Will asked, already getting serious and focused on the situation.

"Somehow, Caleb's friends in the rebellion are being controlled and forced to work for Phobos." Tohru explained, surprising the girls.

"What? How the heck did that happen?" Hay Lin asked.

"I don't know." Caleb answered. "They… they just stopped fighting. All the Lurdens and guards stopped too. They all just stood there, staring, until Cedric gave them a command."

"To do what?" Taranee asked.

"From what Caleb told us, Phobos has been working to construct a drill-mechanism that could potentially breach the rebel's base in the Infinite City." Jackie answered.

"Why would they need a drill for that when old Mr. Oni King can literally pop up anywhere?" Irma asked.

"I had Tohru and Uncle here make an Anti-Oni Onion spell at the Infinite City's entrance to keep Tarakudo from entering." Caleb answered. "We've already begun stocking up on onions as well just in case."

"Way to think ahead." Alchemy noted.

"Getting back to the issue, did maybe Tarakudo brainwash the rebels into helping Cedric?' Will asked.

"No, it wasn't him." Yan Lin soon walked onto the scene. "From the sound of it, it would seem that the rebels and Lurdens have become Trance-Marchers. Simply put, something similar to zombies. Only they don't eat living flesh… unless ordered too."

"Ew! Too much information!" Jade winced.

"Is there a way to snap them out of it?" Caleb asked.

"That is a question I'm afraid only the Mage can answer." Yan Lin replied.

"Who's the Mage?" Alchemy asked.

"An old lady who knows how magic works." Jade gave a brief summation.

"Alright." Jackie already began to relay instructions. "The girls, Tohru, and I will work to take care of that drill before Phobos can use it. Uncle, take Jade, Caleb, and Alchemy to see the Mage and find out how we can stop these 'Trance-Marchers'."

Everyone nodded in agreement with Jackie's plan as Will had already taken out the Heart of Kandrakar.

* * *

Meanwhile, outside the restaurant, Blunk was already making himself at home in the restaurant's dumpster, taking out the many 'treasures' he stole from Phobos' caste, particularly a certain golden horn he stole from the castle as well.

"Oooh yeah." Blunk admired his own reflection in the horn. "Pretty Passling. Why you not date more? Ow!" The Passling felt a smack on his forehead, curtsey of Uncle.

"Passling stop playing with garbage!" Uncle chastised as he, Caleb, Jade, and Alchemy were already present.

"Come on Blunk, mission time." Jade told him.

"Blunk rather boogie-down." The Passling blew into the horn to play a tune, but Caleb had pulled him away, and swiped the horn form him.

"_Secret _mission." Caleb told him. "No clown horns aloud." He threw the horn into the dumpster.

"Let's go. We gotta see this Mage-person." Alchemy tried to run down one direction, but quickly stopped and turned to the others with a nervous smile. "Uh… how do we get there?"

Jade snickered in amusement, while Uncle and Caleb both sighed and shook their heads as they walked forward to lead the way, with Blunk following them. However, none of them noticed a police officer, who appeared to be in the middle of writing a ticket, was in a trance-like state, now a Trance-Marcher from hearing the sound from the horn that Blunk just blew.

* * *

_Meridian_

While in Guardian form, Will carried Jackie, while Irma and Taranee both carried Tohru, as they, along with Hay Lin and Cornelia flew toward the massive drill that the Trans-Marcher rebels and Lurdens were working on.

"Down there." Will spotted the drill.

"But with the rebels under Cedric's control, we can't afford for you girls to use your powers recklessly without hurting them." Jackie said.

"So, we clear them out before we demolish it." Tohru told them.

"How do we do that?" Hay Lin asked.

"I've got an idea." Cornelia was the first to fly toward the ground before slamming her fists onto the ground, sending a tremor directly toward the drill to shake up the area and halt the construction process.

Many of the Trance-Marchers were knocked off the higher platform. But Irma used her power over water to create several water plums to break their fall. "Everybody into the pool!"

"Stop! Stop building!" Jackie tried to get to the Trace-Marchers on the ground that had already gotten up and resumed their work as if nothing happened. "Please stop!" Jackie tried to block their path, or literally shake them away, but the Trance-Marchers ignored him.

"I don't think it's working." Hay Lin said as she flew closer to Jackie. "Maybe whatever Cedric did to them, makes them do only what _he _tells them to."

"Then we'll simply have to carry them to a safe distance." Tohru already had his arms full of six Trance-Marchers and attempted to carry them away. Taranee also did the same as she pulled one girl into the air as well.

However, this drew the attention of Cedric who stood on the castle wall as he oversaw the construction. "Trace-Marchers, resist them!"

Immediately, the Trance-Marchers went on the attack. All the ones Tohru was carrying struggled in his grip and kicked and screamed, literally clawing at his face like wild animals, forcing him to drop them. Others picked up the construction tools they had been using and used them as make-shift weapons to attack the others; particularly Jackie as he couldn't fly to avoid them.

However, Jackie picked up a random plank and used it as a make-shift weapon to not only block the Trance-Marcher attacks, but even swipe them off their feet. "Sorry." He apologized before blocking and defending himself once more. "Sorry." He apologized over and over as he was forced to knock them down for his own defense. "Sorry. Sorry. I will make it up to you all later, thank you!"

It wasn't just Jackie in trouble, the girl Trance-Marcher she had been carrying had clawed at her and pulled on her hair, causing the bespectacled Guardian to crash toward the ground, directly underneath the massive spike.

"Release the spike!" Cedric ordered, intending on crushing not only Taranee but also the Trance-Marcher he was willing to sacrifice.

The spike was dropped and sent falling toward Taranee and the Trance-Marcher holding her down. However, Tohru was quick to run in and catch the spike, using nothing more than his own strength. Though he was able to hold it and prevent it from seriously injuring Taranee, it was rather heavy, and he couldn't hold it much longer, emphasis by his groaning and sweating.

"Hang on Big T! I gotcha!" Hay Lin flew in and sent a powerful bust of wind toward the spike to blow it away from Tohru, Taranee, and the resisting Trance-Marcher, whom Tohru quickly grabbed and pulled off Taranee before running away with her.

Jackie, Will, and Irma had also used the Trace-Marcher's resistant-command to their advantage lure them away from the drill. Once they were far enough away, Jackie called out to the one person who could finish the job.

"Cornelia! The people are safe and away! Destroy the drill!"

"On it!" Cornelia replied as she hovered above the drill. She spun her hands to control the ground underneath the drill, weakening it, and causing it to collapse and take the drill with it. Once it was done, Will and Irma quickly picked up Jackie and flew away from the pursuing Trance-Marchers.

They, along with Cornelia, would fly to meet up with Tohru and Taranee a bit further away as the later kept the struggling female Trance-Marcher in a tight bear-hug. "Hello? Anybody home?" Will waved her hand in front of the Trance-Marcher's face, but her only response was an animalistic-scream and a snarl.

"Can you use some kind of spell to undo this?" Irma asked Tohru.

"Without knowing the source of this, not even a full-fledged Chi-Wizard can break the trance, let alone a simple apprentice like myself." Tohru replied.

"Then let us hope Uncle and the others have learned more about this from the Mage." Jackie said. "We'll head back to Heatherfield and wait for them at the shop."

Tohru put the Trance-Marcher down, allowing Cornelia and Hay Lin to pick him up as they flew away with Irma, Taranee, and Will, who carried Jackie with her.

* * *

_Phobos' Throne Room_

Cedric and a random Lurden, who carried a certain chest, had bowed before Phobos who sat in his throne, with Daolon Wong standing on the right side of the throne, and Tarakudo himself floated on Phobos' left.

"So, it would seem Cedric's little Trance-Marcher scheme was faulty." Wong sneered. "Wouldn't you agree, my prince?" He asked Phobos directly, who seemed less than pleased to learn the drill was destroyed.

"It was only a temporary set-back, Prince Phobos." Cedric said, while casting a glare in Wong's direction. "Nothing that can't be fixed with a few more Trance-Marchers." He stood up, along with the Lurden carrying the chest. However, once Cedric opened it up, he discovered the box was empty.

"Hmm, you didn't tell me your horn could turn invisible." Tarakudo remarked in dry humor as he saw the empty chest.

Cedric however did not share the humor. "The Horn of Hypnos is gone?!" He exclaimed before he transformed into his massive serpent form and angrily crushed the chest in his hands. "The thief will rue his miscalculation!"

Phobos seemed less than pleased as well. "If the Horn of Hypnos falls into the hands of someone in the rebellion, or even with Chan and the Guardians, they could turn our entire army into Trance-Marchers and turn them against us!" He stood up from his throne. "Cedric! Daolon Wong! Find the Horn! Do whatever it takes!"

"Yes, my prince." They both said at the same time as Wong waved his scepter, causing him and Cedric to be engulfed in dark blue smoke before vanishing into thin air.

Phobos sighed as he sat back in his throne to rub the bridge between his eyes. "I swear… it always feels like we take one step forward and two steps back! Perhaps I should have destroyed the Horn of Hypnos once I found it and avoid such a mess all together."

"Still, I can see where something like that can be useful." Tarakudo commented. "To turn your enemies into allies is a good idea and can achieve excellent results if properly executed."

"When the enemy can easily do the same thing, it seems more like a liability than anything else." Phobos remarked.

"But what if said method _can't _be mimicked?" Tarakudo mused, getting Phobos attention. "What if there was a way to turn an enemy into an ally? A powerful one at that."

"What exactly are you getting at, Tarakudo?" Phobos asked.

"What if I were to tell you, I could turn a certain someone over to our side?" Tarakudo offered with a knowing smile. "Someone, who if turned, can strike our enemies where it hurts the most: their hearts."

Phobos had an intrigued smile on his face. "I'm listening."

* * *

Meanwhile, in the Infinite City; Uncle, Jade, Alchemy, Caleb, and Blunk stood before the Mage, who had just walked out of the waterfall to address them as they have just told her everything, they know about the rebels becoming Trance-Marchers.

"What you have described is the effect of the Horn of Hypnos." The Mage told them.

"She say… Horn?" Blunk asked nervously.

"When pointed at its victim, the Horn's tone creates a Trance-Marcher." The Mage explained.

"Uh… guys." Blunk tried to get their attention.

"Ssshh, quiet Blunk." Caleb told the Passling.

"Can a Trance-Marcher share sensitive information?" Uncle asked the Mage.

"No." The Mage replied. "When turned into a Trance-Marcher, the victim's mind becomes a blank. They are unable to share deep secrets with the one controlling them."

"Which means they won't tell Phobos and company about the Infinite City." Jade said, much to Caleb's relief.

"However, while they cannot reveal any secrets, they will obey whoever blows the Horn and do anything and everything they ask, even at the cost of their own lives." The Mage said. "In the wrong hands, it is a dangerous weapon."

"Can we reverse it?" Caleb asked.

The Mage's response was creating the image of a harp and playing a magical tone with it. "This melody breaks the spell, but you must find the Horn and destroy it."

"About Horn…" Blunk laughed nervously. "Funny story…" But it didn't seem anyone was paying attention.

"Hold on." Jade pulled out her phone and set it to record. "Can you play the sound again?" The Mage did so and played the melody once more, which Jade was able to successfully record. "Got it."

"Uncle can make protective chi-spell with this." Uncle said, ruffling his great-niece's hair. "Excellent work, Jade."

"Ah, shucks." Jade tried to act modest.

"So, how do we destroy this Horn-thing?" Alchemy asked. "Please don't tell me it can only be destroyed in a volcano or something like that."

"The Horn can be destroyed by any normal method." The Mage replied as Blunk tried to get their attention still.

"Blunk know something about horn!" However, Caleb held him back.

"What does it look like?" The young rebel asked. The Mage's reply was to create a magical projection of a familiar-looking horn that they all recognized. "Wait a minute…!"

"Caleb threw Horn in trash! Him! Him! Him!" Blunk pointed to the young rebel, whom Uncle was quick to dope-slap.

"Ow!" Caleb rubbed his forehead.

"Well actually this is good for us." Jade said, getting their attention. "We know where the Horn is, and Phobos doesn't have it. We just gotta get to Earth, smash it with a sledgehammer, and bing-bang-boom, we win!"

"Eh… yeah…" Alchemy winced. "Except today is… garbage day. They empty the dumpsters today."

"AIYA!" Uncle exclaimed.

* * *

_Earth – Silver Dragon_

Hay Lin was taking the trash to the dumpster, while everyone else had gone home, as per Jackie's request while he and Tohru waited at Uncle's shop for Caleb's group to return. "Oooh, I'm gonna be so grounded if I can't explain where I was this afternoon. Study group with Uncle Jackie?" Hay Lin muttered to herself as she threw the trash bag into the dumpster. However, as she did, she noticed the Horn of Hypnos inside.

She reached inside to pick the Horn out, not knowing what it was. "Weird… looks brand new." She gave a gasp of realization as she found a good excuse. "I was at my whatever-this-thing-is lesson! Cause… I'm joining the school band! That's good!" She blew the Horn herself to get a tune out of it.

However, her father happened to hear the tune inside the kitchen as he was cleaning the dishes, turning him into a Trance-Marcher just as Hay Lin peaked in. "Um Dad… sorry I was late today, but I really want to go to the dance Friday! Plus, I kinda wanna meet my friends tonight so…"

"As you wish." Her Trance-Marcher father said robotically.

"Really?!" Hay Lin asked excitedly, not noticing the blank look on his face. "Get out of here!"

"As you wish." He repeated, taking it literally as he walked out of the kitchen, with Hay Lin right behind him just as Principle Knickerbocker entered the restaurant.

"Good Evening Chen, table for one please." Knickerbocker requested.

"Hi Principle Knickerbocker!" Hay Lin told her before whispering to her unresponsive father. "Dad, wake up." She urged before addressing Knickerbocker herself. "Why don't you take the table by the window?"

However, the Trance-Marcher dad, literally did just that. "As you wish." He walked over to a random table and put it by the window.

"He's been under a lot of cooking stress." Hay Lin told her principle, even though she wasn't sure what was going on with him either. "Well, I'm outie! Oh, and I'd like to donate this to the school band." Hay Lin gave the Horn of Hypnos to her principle. "Bye Dad! Don't wait up for me!"

Of course, her Trance-Marcher father took it literally as he fell to the floor.

* * *

_Uncle's Rare Finds_

Jade played the recorded harmony on her phone again as Uncle and Tohru got to work on preparing the spell. "Uncle, can you really reverse the spell of this Horn of Hypnos?" Jackie asked.

"No, Uncle can only cast _protective_ spell from Horn." Uncle stated. "To break spell already cast on Trance-Marchers, the horn must be destroyed." He said as he began to mix spell ingredients together in a small cauldron.

"And you said Blunk stole the Horn, but Caleb accidentally threw it out?" Tohru asked.

"Yeah." Jade confirmed. "Well… at least the bad guys don't have it, so… that's good, right?"

"It could still fall into someone's hands and put innocent people in danger if they don't know how to use it, Jade." Jackie said. "I already told Captain Black, and he is having Section 13 search all the city's dumps for this Horn."

"Caleb and Blunk choose to stay behind in Meridian, to alert rebels who have _not _become Trance-Marchers to remain in hiding till the spell is broken." Uncle informed as he and Tohru continued to work.

"We should have a spell prepared by tomorrow." Tohru said. "But we've never made a spell from a sound before."

"I will send a text to let the girls all know." Jackie pulled out his phone.

"Well then let's just hope we can get this done soon." Jade said. "Dance is tomorrow, and I don't want the Forces of Darkness to spoil the party."

* * *

_Meridian – the next day_

"Alright, so everyone is staying hiding until the Horn is destroyed." Caleb said as he and Blunk walked up the hill towards the portal. "Can't believe you actually stole it from under Phobos' nose."

"Blunk do good." The Passling said proudly. "Keep Horn away from bad guys."

"But you also threw it out." Caleb glared slightly. "And when we got back, the trash was already taken to the dump."

"Caleb throw Horn in trash! Not Blunk!" Blunk exclaimed.

The rebel rolled his eyes. "Well, at least they have Section 13 looking for the Horn."

"Well, what a coinkydink." Both looked up in surprise to see the Dark Chi Warrior, Finn, standing on top of a rock, looking down onto the pair. "We're looking for a horn too." He said as Ratso and Chow, in their respective Dark Chi Warrior forms, jumped and landed behind the pair. But it didn't stop with them; Cedric, Daolon Wong, and all the Trance-Marcher rebels appeared on the hilltop.

"Ah! Bad guys! Run!" Blunk screamed as he and Caleb turned around to run toward the portal.

"After them!" Cedric ordered as he, Wong, the Dark Chi Enforcers, and Trance-Marcher rebels gave pursuit. However, the small army were too late to stop Caleb and Blunk from reaching the portal and jumping into it. "Marchers, wait!" The shapeshifter stopped the Trance-Marchers from pursuing any further. "Daolon Wong, you and your warriors go scout the other side."

Wong snarled at the shapeshifter. "I do not see why when you were the one who lost the Horn of Hypnos!"

"You will go through the portal, or I will have the Trance-Marchers rip you and your warriors limb-from-limb!" Cedric hissed as he and Wong glared at each other.

However, the Enforcers were quick to break it up. "Okay, don't worry Big C. We got it covered." Finn said.

"Yeah, no need for any mutilating this week." Chow also said as they nervously pulled Wong away.

"We'll be right back." Ratso also said.

* * *

_Earth - Heatherfield_

The portal appeared to be in an abandoned warehouse in the middle of a dump as Wong and his Dark Chi Enforcers left the portal to see Caleb and Blunk already a considerable distance away.

"Hmmm." Wong observed the terrain of the dump. "They will come back to close the portal eventually." He turned to the Enforcers. "Go back and tell Cedric to bring the Trance-Marchers here. I have a plan."

* * *

_Sheffield Institute _

Martin, who was part of the school's marching band, blew the Horn of Hypnos, thinking it was a normal instrument, not noticing he just turned his bandmates into Trance-Marchers. "This thing's great!" He said excitedly as he looked at the Horn. "Just wish we could practice marching, too!"

The Trance-Marchers did as Martin 'ordered' and began to march off the football field. "Wait… uh… wait, wait, wait up!" He tried to catch up them, only for one Trance-Marcher to literally stop as Martin ran into him, slamming his face into the trombone in the process.

* * *

_Uncle's Rare Finds_

"My agents have scoured through all the city's landfills." Captain Black informed Jackie and Tohru as Uncle continued to work with the spell. "No sign of this Horn-thing."

"Then where can it be?" Jackie wondered as Caleb and Blunk suddenly ran inside.

"Cedric and Daolon Wong have all the Trance-Marcher rebels under their control." Caleb said as he and Blunk tried to catch their breaths. "Don't worry, they didn't follow us here. How's that spell coming?"

"Hold your horses! Magic cannot be rushed!" Uncle chastised as he poured an elixir into the cauldron.

"Making a spell based off a sound is a lot more difficult than it looks, but it should be ready within an hour or two." Tohru said.

"Caleb, is the portal still open?" Jackie asked.

"Yeah." Caleb nodded.

"Meaning Cedric and Wong will try to come through with their Trance-Marchers to look for the Horn of Hypnos themselves. Even if they have to tear apart the entire city to do it." Jackie said.

"Not on my watch." Captain Black stated.

"Hold on, they're my friends and comrades!" Caleb quickly said. "You can't hurt them!"

"I'm not planning on it." Captain Black replied. "They might be hypnotized, but all their bodies still function normally, right? That includes their heart and lungs?"

"Yeah… still have to breathe." Caleb confirmed. "Why?"

Captain Black gave a knowing smirk. "I've got an idea."

* * *

_Sheffield Institute _

Meanwhile; Will, Jade, Irma, Hay Lin, Taranee, Cornelia, and Alchemy all hung out at the main gate outside the building. "Big news!" Taranee announced to her friends. "I kinda, almost, nearly have a date."

"That's great!" Will replied, happy for her friend. "Who's the kinda, almost, nearly, lucky guy?"

Almost on que, the group heard a whistle in Taranee's direction, they turned around to see the guy in question, whom Will recognized as someone from Matt's band at the base who waved at Taranee before walking away. "Nigel finally figured out he likes me."

"Didn't he hang out with that Uriah guy?" Jade asked.

"Looks like he grew a brain and ditched those idiots." Alchemy replied.

"And with Caleb kinda, almost, nearly going out with Cornelia; it just leaves me, Irma, Alchemy, and Jade without dates." Hay Lin said.

"Eh, not interested." Jade shrugged.

"Why, cause your last boyfriend turned into a demon?" Cornelia asked.

"First, we never actually dated." Jade replied. "Second, he didn't 'turn into' a demon, he already was one, just disguised as a boy. And third, I'm just not interested in dating."

"Yeah, I'm not looking for anyone right now either." Alchemy also said.

"Plus, we all know Irma's gonna go out with Martin later on." Jade joked, Irma to grumble in annoyance.

"Shut it, Jade." Irma told her.

"You didn't say 'no'." Jade still joked, resulting in the other girls laughing.

However, the laughing came to an end as the Trance-Marcher marching band walked out from the school grounds, marching and playing their instruments really badly as they did.

"Hey look, the marching band is group-ditching school." Irma said.

"Um… are they okay…? They look kinda spaced out." Alchemy observed.

Will got a good look in their eyes. "Wait a minute… we've seen this before…" Her eyes suddenly widened in realization. "They're Trance-Marchers! It's spread to Heatherfield!"

Jade immediately took out her cellphone and made a call. "Uncle Jackie, we have a problem!"

* * *

It was late afternoon as Caleb and Blunk walked through the area where the portal was located. They appeared to walk aimlessly, that is until they came to the center of the junkyard when a massive shadow loomed over them. They looked toward the top of a pile garbage to see the massive form of Cedric, along with Daolon Wong and the Dark Chi Enforcers glaring down at them.

"The Horn of Hypnos, if you please? Cedric hissed as all the Trance-Marcher rebels appeared and completely surrounded the duo.

Blunk screamed and hid behind Caleb's leg, but Caleb himself didn't look all that intimidated. "Sorry, we don't have it." Caleb said casually before he smirked. "But you know what we _do _have? A trap! Now!"

Suddenly; the five girls of WITCH, clad in their full guardian forms, all shot out from their hidden spots in the Junkyard, along with Jackie and Tohru, and even Jade, who appeared to float in mid-air all by herself.

"Hey snake-boy!" Jade called to Cedric. "What happens when cross a rabbit, with a rooster, and an ox?" She questioned as she brandished the Rabbit, Roster, and even Ox Talismans in her hand. "Answer: one mean punch!" She flew directly at Cedric at high-speeds and decked a powerful slug across his face, which was enough to send the massive shapeshifter flying out of the junkyard and crashing hard on the street, though he seemed to recover quickly enough.

"Trance-Marchers! Attack!" Cedric ordered.

"Go my warriors! Destroy them all!" Wong ordered the Dark Chi Enforcers as the trio, along with the Trance-Marcher rebels all charged directly for the heroes in the middle, but they seemed prepared even for this as Jackie took out a walkie-talkie.

"Captain Black! Go!" Jackie stated.

Suddenly, several armored vehicles appeared from down the street as they surrounded the entire junkyard before they opened up and dozens of Section 13 agents in SWAT uniforms piled out, along with Captain Black, who had Alchemy right next to him.

"Fire canisters!" Captain Black ordered as all his agents had riot-guns and opened fire, shooting metallic canisters into the air and into the junkyard. Once they hit the ground, gas shot out of the canisters and began to fill the air around the Trans-Marcher rebels, causing them to cough and halt their advance.

Finn, Ratso, and Chow coughed as well and tried to cover their eyes. "Oh… that really stings…!" Ratso tried to rub his eyes.

"It's tear gas!" Finn exclaimed.

"Yes, it is!" Finn looked in surprise to see Jackie, who had a gas-mask on, run in and slam a fist across Finn's face to send him hurtling into a junk-pile as Caleb and Tohru ran alongside him, both had gas masks of their own to protect themselves; even Blunk, who rode on Caleb's shoulder, had his own gas mask.

Tohru quickly ran to grab Ratso and throw him hard at the downed Finn, causing them both to poof and vanish; while Caleb swung his katana onto the blinded Chow, poofing him as well. The trio then made their way past the disoriented Trans-Marchers, doing their best not to hurt them, though they had to push and knock them down to get out of the junkyard fast.

"Sorry Drake." Caleb apologized as he knocked his friend down.

Daolon Wong tried to fan away the gas near him as he stood at the tallest point in the junkyard. "Gas… hmmph." He didn't seem impressed. "I can remove that easily enough…!"

"Sorry, I don't think so!" Will flew down to grab Wong by the shoulders and pull him up into the air before throwing him toward Taranee who launched a volley of fireballs at Wong. Instinctively, the Dark Chi Wizard threw up a barrier of dark magic to shield himself, but the blast from Taranee's fire was enough to send him crashing right next to the recovering Cedric. Cornelia then flew toward them as she placed her hands on the ground and grew multiple thick plant vines from the ground around the two villains and entangled them.

"You set a trap of your own?!" Daolon Wong exclaimed.

"Duh." Jade smirked as she, Will, Cornelia, and Taranee hovered in the air with smirks.

Cedric hissed in anger. "This will only slow them down! Marchers, attack!"

"Sorry, but no." Will took out her walkie talkie and spoke into it. "Captain Black, go!"

"You heard her, men!" Captain Black nodded to his agents. "Fire the second capsules!"

After loading a new type of capsule into their riot guns, the Section 13 agents fired them into the junkyard as the tear-gas began to clear up. The second the canisters hit the ground, with all the Trance-Marcher rebels condensed in the middle, a different type of gas began to fill the air.

Seeing that as their signal, Hay Lin and Irma both flew into the air as Irma shot her hands forward to spread out a water wave around the junkyard, while also manipulating the water's shape to take the form of a dome that kept the gas and Trans-Marchers trapped inside before Hay Lin inhaled to blow a blast of cold air to freeze the dome solid. Jade the flew in with her three current Talismans and used her enhanced strength to punch a couple of holes in the top and let it air out.

By the time she regrouped with the WITCH girls in the air, the ice-dome had aired out from the gas as all the Trans-Marchers inside appeared to be knocked unconscious.

Despite being restraint along with Daolon Wong, Cedric was unwilling to give up. "Trans-Marchers, stand!" How veer, they didn't even respond and continued to lay unconscious. "I said stand!"

"Sorry, they can't hear you." Caleb said as he, Jackie, Tohru, and Blunk walked towards the restraint villains, having removed their gas masks. "Kinda hard to hear anyone when you're knocked out cold."

"Anesthetic gas." Jackie explained. "It induces a coma-like state, deeper than even sleep. Those rebels won't be waking up for a few hours at least."

"The Horn of Hypnos might affect a person's mind, but it doesn't control the rest of their bodies." Tohru stated with crossed arms.

In no time at all; not only had the Chan Clan, Guardians, and their friends regrouped, but all the Section 13 agents had surrounded the bound duo with different types of guns, the ones with laser-pointers as both Cedric and Wong had red lasers pointed all over their bodies.

"Those riot guns fire gas containers." Black said to the villains as he approached them with crossed arms. "These ones however shoot lethal ammunition, and the safeties are off. So, do you two wanna do this the easy way, or the hard way?"

Irma shivered with a smile. "Oooh, now that is how you sound like a badass."

Cedric hissed as he grinded his teeth so much, it almost looked like they were about to chip, and while Wong was almost as angry, he remained calm enough to cast a large plum of dark blue smoke from his scepter that engulfed both him and Cedric before vanishing.

"Guess they took the easy way. The easy way out, anyway." Alchemy commented as most of the heroes looked somewhat disappointed, save for Blunk who just admired his gas mask.

"Oooh, cool-looking mask." Blunk put it on. "How cool Blunk look?" However, nobody appeared to hear him.

"You're sure they're gonna be okay?" Caleb asked as he looked to his unconscious friends and comrades inside the ice-dome.

"Relax, this is the kind of stuff doctors use when performing surgery. They'll be fine." Captain Black assured.

"Yeah, but when they wake up, they'll be zombies again." Cornelia stated.

"Not if we smash that stupid horn." Jade said. "That Mage-lady said if we destroy the Horn of Hypnos, everyone will go back to normal."

While everyone had smiles at this news, Hay Lin winced with a dreadful realization. "Um… horn? Is it about this big…" She gestured the appearance with her hands. "and a goldy… shiny… like…?"

"Wait… Hay Lin you've seen it?!" Jackie questioned as everyone turned their eyes on her.

"Yeah… I've seen it…" Hay Lin nodded. "And I also… might have… given it to… Principle Knickerbocker…"

Will smacked her forehead. "That's why the marching band became Trance-Marchers!"

"You mean the band that was marching out of school… and into town…and they also probably had… the Horn with them…?" Taranee asked as it didn't take much for all the heroes to put two-and-two together to realize what that means.

"Bad day…" Jackie muttered.

Tohru suddenly felt a vibration in his pocket and took out his cellphone before answering it. "Hello? Sensei?"

"_Tohru, I have devised protective chi-spell! Are Jackie and girls with you?" _Uncle asked on the other side of the line.

"Right here, Sensei." Tohru answered as everyone looked toward the big sumo.

"_Put them on phone." _Uncle told him, prompting Tohru to put the phone on speaker.

"Uncle…?" Jackie asked. "We can all hear you."

Immediately, Uncle began to recite a familiar chant. _"Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao." _However, the way Uncle was chanting, it was in the same tone that the melody was in that the Mage told them. _"Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao."_

As Uncle chanted, a green chi-wave echoed through the phone's speakers, hitting each of the heroes as Jackie, Will, Jade, Irma, Tohru, Hay Lin, Cornelia, Taranee, Caleb, Alchemy, Blunk, and even Captain Black were all surrounded by a green aura before it vanished as Uncle finished chanting.

"_Chi spell will protect you from Horn's power." _Uncle explained over the phone. _"Even if you hear Horn's sound, you will not become Trance-Marcher. But Horn must be destroyed to break spell permanently."_

"Then we better find that blow-hard. Fast." Jade stated.

* * *

It was really late in Heatherfield, and people everywhere were just minding their own business when they either heard or saw the Trance-Marker Sheffield marching band marching and playing their instruments throughout the streets aimlessly through the city. However, once they heard the sound of the Horn of Hypnos being played by the oblivious Martin, they also became Trance-Marchers and joined the band. Within a matter of hours, it appeared that half the Heatherfield population had been zombified and marched aimlessly throughout the city.

However, one group of the Section 13 agents that Captain Black had sent out to find the Horn some time ago had spotted the growing army of Trance-Marchers. The reason they weren't zombified was due to the fact that they each had earplugs to avoid becoming Trance-Marchers themselves just in case the enemy forces found the Horn before they did.

One agent pulled out his communicator to inform his leader. "Captain Black sir, we have found the target."

* * *

"Copy, Good work." Captain Black got off his communicator to address the Chan Clan and WITCH girls. "Agents have spotted the marching band, as well as most of the town, all heading to Sheffield. ETA to the school in ten minutes."

"Of course, it's the marching band." Taranee said in realization. "They're following they're normal practice routine."

"But if it's more than half the Heatherfield population, Daolon Wong and Cedric will have little trouble finding the horn with so many Trance-Marchers heading to one location." Jackie said.

"Hang on, I think I have an idea." Caleb said. "I'll explain it on the way, we gotta get to the school."

As the group quickly made their way to the school's direction; they failed to notice Tarakudo appearing out of some graffiti on the wall of a nearby alleyway as he saw the heroes head off. "Hmm, looks like I might just have my chance."

* * *

As the massive herd of Trance-Marchers made their way closer to the school; Cedric and Daolon Wong had saw where the Horn of Hypnos was in the large group of people as Wong had erected a dark magic barrier to keep them from accidentally hearing the Horn's sound becoming Trance-Marchers themselves.

"Looks like we found our prize." Wong observed. "As well as an army of Trance-Marchers."

"Then let us seize both, and finally rid ourselves of those annoying pests." Cedric stated as he shifted back into his human form, while Wong waved his scepter, causing them both to vanish in a puff of dark smoke.

Then suddenly, the evil duo reappeared directly behind Martin. "Give us the horn!" Cedric told the boy.

"Uh, sorry sir, this is school property." Martin told them. "And unless you got a signed-notice…" He was interrupted by a blast of dark magic from Wong to knock him down, allowing Wong to take the Horn. "Hey! What's the big…?!'

Wong then blew into the Horn of Hypnos, aiming it directly at Martin to turn him into a Trance-Marcher.

"Excellent. Now Wong, if you would…" However, Daolon Wong turned the Horn of Hypnos on Cedric and blew into it, turning the shapeshifter into a Trance-Marcher as well.

"Hmmp, you were outwitted by a Passling of all things." The Dark Chi wizard told the zombified shapeshifter. "This belongs in more capable hands." An idea soon came to Wong's mind. "In fact, I'll use it on the Guardians, as well as Chan and his allies, before turning this entire city into an army of my own slaves. After which, I'll return to Meridian, with a few hundred thousand Trance-Marchers, to pull that foolish Phobos from his throne and take it for myself!" He proclaimed with an evil laugh.

* * *

Will, Irma, Hay Lin, Cornelia, Taranee, and Jade all flew through the skies; five of the girls in their Guardian forms, while Jade still had the three Talismans with her. She also carried Tohru, which was quite easy thanks to the Ox Talisman, as Will carried Jackie. It wasn't long before they arrived at the main gate of Sheffield, only to find the entire street, as well as front courtyard filled with Trance-Marchers; with Daolon Wong standing on the balcony with the Horn of Hypnos in his hands.

"Ah, young Guardians, and Chan." Wong greeted the heroes upon seeing them. "Welcome to my army. We're so thrilled to have you join us… literally!" The Dark Chi wizard blew into the Horn, the sound waves traveling through the air and hitting the group as they continued to hover in the air, however, nothing happened.

"Hey, you might wanna take that in, it sounds like it can use a tune-up." Irma joked.

"What?!" Wong exclaimed in shock. "But… how…?!" He soon growled as he had an idea how this could have happened. "Of course. That novice protected you with a Chi-Spell. No matter, if you will not be my slaves, you shall be the first casualties of war, by your own hometown! Marchers, kill them all!"

The Trance-Marchers all turned towards the group of hovering heroes. "Kill them all. Kill them all. Kill them all." The Trance-Marchers marched closer, but the heroes found themselves most surprised by the ape prance of Cedric has he transformed into his massive serpent form and glared with his dull eyes. "Kill them all." Cedric said robotically.

The group hovered higher into the air to avoid being grabbed by Cedric and the other Trance-Marchers. "Did Wong just zap his buddy Cedric?" Will asked in genuine surprise.

"Bad guy back-stabbing. It was bound to happen eventually." Jade wasn't all that surprised.

However, around the corner of the building, while Wong and the Trance-Marchers appeared focused on the Guardians, Jackie, Jade, and Tohru; they did not notice an invisible group of people consisting of Captain Black, Caleb, Alchemy, Blunk, and Uncle, all were out of sight thanks to the Snake Talisman.

"Looks all eyes on them." Captain Black noticed.

"And that spell thing worked." Alchemy said. "We heard the horn but were not zombies."

"Uncle's magic works every time." Uncle said proudly.

"Gloat later, we gotta break the spell and destroy the horn." Caleb said. "I know the melody; I just have to play it so everyone can hear it."

"No problem." Alchemy said. "Matt's band should be in the auditorium, and I can plug his guitar into the PA system in the office."

"Then leave the wizard and the Horn to the rest of us." Captain Black said, referring to himself, Uncle, and Blunk.

"Bad wizard not know what hit him." Blunk said.

"Well do not just stand there, get cracking!" Uncle stated. "Jackie, Jade, Tohru, and Guardians cannot hold Trance-Marchers forever!"

Alchemy and Caleb broke off from the group, allowing themselves to turn visible as she led him to the school's auditorium; while Uncle, Captain Black, and Blunk, who still remained invisible, worked their way inside the building toward the balcony.

Meanwhile; the girls of WITCH, along with Jade, while still carrying Tohru and Jackie,

hovered high enough into the air, so that they were out of reach of even Cedric, yet he, and many other Trance-Marchers attempted to climb the building to get closer to them.

"So how long do we have to keep this up?" Cornelia asked.

"If Caleb's plan works, hopefully not long." Jackie said.

"It's cool." Hay Lin said. "I mean, they can't keep climbing forever and we can go as high as we want."

"Hopefully not high enough that we have trouble breathing." Taranee commented.

Suddenly, Tohru felt a chill down his spine. "Oh no…"

"Tohru?" Jade asked.

"What's wrong, big guy?" Irma also asked.

"I… have the willies…" Tohru responded, which was enough for the girls and Jackie to look at each other with dread.

"But that… only happens when…." Cornelia stuttered.

"When a certain King makes his appearance!" The Lord of all Oni suddenly appeared in the air behind them.

"TARAKUDO!" They all screamed in fear as the King of the Shadowkhan unleashed a powerful psychic blast to knock all of them out of the sky, all save for Jade, whom he caught with his telekinetic power.

Hay Lin acted quickly as she blew a column of air toward the ground to knock many of the Trance-Marchers out of the way, while also cushioning the landing for her fellow Guardians, Jackie, and Tohru.

Hay Lin however noticed someone was missing and gasped once she saw where their missing friend was. "He's got Jade!"

Jackie was about to make his way toward the building and climb back up when two Trance-Marchers grabbed his legs and pulled him back down. In little time, all the hundreds of Trance-Marchers surrounded all of them. As the Guardians attempted to fly out to escape and rescue Jade, they were quickly pulled back down as they were grabbed by their legs. Even Tohru was pressed against the ground by the Trance-Marcher Cedric.

Jade, meanwhile, struggled in the invisible grip of Tarakudo. "Let me go you floating head freak!"

"You're a feisty one, aren't you?" Tarakudo mused. "Don't worry, this won't hurt a bit." He began to concentrate his powers on her, specifically at one point on her body, on her back-left shoulder. Underneath her clothes, a familiar mark had soon carved itself magically onto her skin, causing her to grunt in pain. "Well, it might hurt a little bit." Tarakudo commented.

Despite being surrounded and almost literally torn apart by the Trance-Marchers, Will was able to pull herself free as she flew up into the air, straight towards the hovering enemy. "Let her go!" Will shouted as she drew a certain vegetable and threw it right at Tarakudo's face.

The second the onion made contact with Tarakudo's face, he felt a burning sensation in his eyes as he began to shed tears of green energy. "Ugh! My Eyes! My Eyes!" Tarakudo exclaimed in pain as he flew away, forcing him to drop the weakened Jade, whom Will was quick to catch.

"Jade! Are you okay?!" She asked urgently as the younger girl's eyes opened somewhat weakly.

"Yeah… didn't hurt a bit… thanks." Jade gave a smile.

"When fighting an Oni, never leave home without an onion." Will smiled.

"Great, hopefully they'll keep all the zombies back." Jade got back to their current situation. Fortunately, she still had her three Talismans as they flew back down to help their friends push back against the Trance-Marchers.

* * *

Caleb and Alchemy quickly ran into the school auditorium, which was completely vacant, save for Matt and his band. However, once they saw the two enter, they thought the party was about to start back up again.

"Right on! It's starting to pick up!" Matt said as Caleb hopped up on the stage. "Got a request, bro?"

"Yeah, give your instrument!" Caleb said as he took the guitar from Matt's hands, much to his surprise.

"Sorry! We'll give it right back! Promise!" Alchemy said as she and Caleb ran out of the auditorium, much to the band's confusion.

* * *

Back down below, Daolon Wong watched with absolute joy as he saw Jackie, Tohru, Jade, and the Guardians struggling against his Trance-Marcher army. "How does it feel, fools?!" Wong called to them. "To be literally torn apart by your own community?!"

"Come down here yourself and we'll show you!" Cornelia challenged, only to get pulled back down by the Trance-Marchers.

The group of heroes found themselves literally cornered against the wall as the Trance-Marcher Cedric loomed over them at the front of the army. "Finish them!" Daolon Wong ordered.

"_Good evening Heatherfield!" _Alchemy's voice ran through the school's PA system outside, much to the surprise of Wong, and the relief of the heroes as they knew what it meant.

* * *

"Are you ready to rock?!" Alchemy shouted into the PA system as if she was about to start a concert. "Let's rock, baby! Hit it!" She pointed to Caleb, who already had the electric guitar plugged into the system.

Caleb immediately strung the guitar and played the melody the Mage had told him, which also had been recorded Jade and recited by Uncle multiple times, so much so he memorized it with little effort.

* * *

Outside, the guitar's melody rang throughout the speakers, allowing it to reach all the Trance-Marchers, and stopping their attack. Using this opportunity, Tohru quickly grabbed the massive Cedric by his tail and threw him into a nearby alleyway. Best people _didn't _see a giant humanoid snake after waking up from their trance, which they all did four seconds later.

Will, Irma, Hay Lin, Taranee, and Cornelia had also turned back to normal for the same sort of reason as they all shared relieved smiles with Jackie, Jade, and Tohru.

Daolon Wong however was less than happy as he saw him loose control of his army. "I will destroy them!" However, he felt something missing from his hand and looked to see the Horn had vanished. "What?! Where is…?!"

"Yoo-hoo!" He turned around to see Blunk, having just turned visible, standing on the balcony's railing. Blunk laughed as he held the Horn of Hypnos in his hands before throwing it into the air; allowing Captain Black, now also visible, having arrived on the scene with Uncle by his side, brandish the Dragon Talisman and blast a stream of fire at the airborne Horn of Hypnos, destroying it with one hit.

"NO!" Wong exclaimed, but was later blasted off the balcony by a chi-blast from Uncle's blowfish. The Chi-Wizard blew some smoke from his fish cowboy-style before he shared a fist-bump from both Captain Black and even Blunk.

The spell having worn off, all the people awoke from their trances and cheered at the music that played through the PA system as if they were all at a rock concert. All except for Principle Knickerbocker who was stuck on the building she attempted to climb earlier as a Trance-Marcher.

"How… How did I get up here?!" She questioned in surprise as Jackie and Tohru helped her down.

"Er… a lot of people got carried away with the school dance fever." Taranee quickly made up an excuse.

"Yeah… kinda like at rock concerts." Jade also added. "You just gotta go with the flow."

Knickerbocker seemed to buy it. "So, I must be having fun? Oh, good. Everyone back to the dance."

With the crisis adverted, everyone gave a sigh of relief. "Excellent work, girls. You all did well." Jackie told them all.

"Thanks Uncle Jackie." Hay Lin smiled.

"So…" Will looked at her partially torn clothes. "First date… how do I look?"

"Like a badass." Jade complemented.

"Yeah, a total end-of-the-world survivor style." Irma also complemented as the other girls laughed while Jackie and Tohru simply smiled.

Meanwhile; Cedric had just awoken from his own trance in the alleyway as he saw all the people celebrating outside on the street. He snarled upon remembering what had happened. "Daolon Wong… that wretched wizard…! I shall…" However, Cedric's ranting was cut short as an invisible telekinetic force pulled him high into the air and away from the school.

A similar force had grabbed onto Daolon Wong, who had just recovered from his fall into the school's courtyard, and he was pulled into the air as well. Thankfully, nobody noticed.

* * *

Both Cedric and Daolon Wong crashed through the already broken ceiling of the warehouse, just in front of the still-open portal, where Tarakudo had been waiting for them. However, neither appeared to notice the Oni King as the Shapeshifter turned his rage toward the Dark Chi wizard.

"Wong!" Cedric siezed him by the throat and pinned him against the wall. "You dare turn the Horn of Hypnos against me?!"

"It was your incompetence that led to it being stolen in the first place!" Wong exclaimed.

"Yet you just lost it now!" Cedric shouted. "I should snap your neck like a twig!"

Wong however aimed his scepter, already surging with dark magic at his face. "Try it… and I shall curse you in ways you cannot imagine…!"

"Enough!" Tarakudo exclaimed before using his telekinetic powers to blast them both to the wall. "You are _both _at fault here! But it is not my place to punish you. That privilege belongs to Phobos. I'm sure he'll be _very _happy to learn how much you two have been back-stabbing each other." Tarakudo picked them both up with his powers and literally threw them into the portal before flying in himself.

* * *

_Sheffield_

All the students had arrived at the dance, which was now in full-swing as Matt's band played song-after-song. A disco-ball shined multiple lights all over the auditorium as everyone appeared to have a good time. Nigel played on base-guitar next to Matt as he spotted Taranee and gave her a wink, causing her to smile and blush.

Cornelia danced alongside Caleb as well, though she found his dance-style to be less than appealing. "Don't you dance in Meridian?"

"What do you call this?" Caleb said as he tried to dance to a different style, which appeared even less appealing than before, causing her to slap her hand against her forehead.

Irma also appeared to be dancing, albeit comically against her will by Martin. "Shake it, don't break it, mama!" Martin exclaimed as he tried to twirl with Irma.

"Martin, buh-bye." Irma let go, causing Martin to spin out of control before he crashed at the table that Hay Lin, Jade, and Alchemy hung out at; resulting in the three girls laughing.

"Don't worry champ, I'm sure you'll wear her down eventually." Jade joked.

"Yo, any sign of your girlfriend?" Nigel asked Matt as he looked around as well, while still playing, and couldn't find any sing of the girl in question.

* * *

After all the freed rebels had recovered from the hypnosis and anesthetic gas, they all returned to Meridian through the portal. Once the last of them walked through, Will stood alongside Jackie, Tohru, Uncle, and Captain Black as she used the Heart of Kandrakar to seal the portal in the warehouse.

"Well, that's one less portal to worry about." She said.

"Then go on and enjoy yourself at the dance, Will. You've earned it." Jackie told her with a smile and a pat on the back.

"Thanks Jackie." She smiled as she ran out of the building.

"You know, I'd say you earned a break too, old friend." Captain Black told Jackie with a smile. "Come on, let me treat you all to a drink."

"Oh, thank you Augustus, but you know I don't drink alcohol." Jackie said.

"Don't worry, they have soda too." Captain Black assured.

"This place wouldn't happen to have sake, would it?" Tohru asked with a hopeful smile, causing Captain Black and Jackie to chuckle.

"Place better have tea. Uncle does not drink alcohol either." Uncle stated as the group of men left the building as well.

* * *

Back at the auditorium, Will had just arrived and made it through the crowd when she spotted Matt. He saw her as well and smiled upon her arrival. As she walked toward the stage, Matt offered her a hand, which she accepted as he helped her up onto the stage before playing the next song. As Matt and his band played, he and Will both danced to the rhythm, and would be dancing all night long.

* * *

_Meridian – Phobos' Throne Room_

Both Wong and Cedric yelled in pain as they were blasted with Phobos' magic power before sent skidding across the floor. "Why is it impossible for you two to work together?!" Phobos exclaimed as Tarakudo hovered on his right side. "Your refusal to cooperate is one thing… but to sabotage each other is something else altogether!"

"My Prince, Wong had turned the Horn of Hypnos on me!" Cedric exclaimed. "He would have directed thousands of Trance-Marchers, including Chan and the Guardians, against you!"

"You have no proof I would betray the prince!" Wong argued. "I only used the Horn on you because your incompetence has allowed our enemies to outwit us on numerous occasions!"

"SILENCE!" Phobos shouted as he blasted them both once more. When his attack was done; both the Shapeshifter and Dark Chi Wizard laid on the ground, smoke coming from both their bodies. "What allows our enemies to succeed, is their ability to take advantage of our divided nature! You two are so busy fighting with each other, you don't have time to deal with the real threat! I do not care what sort of animosities lay between either of you, you _will _find a way to cooperate, otherwise I'll cast you both into the Abyss of Shadows! Do I make myself clear?!"

"Yes… my prince…" Cedric hissed reluctantly.

"Crystal clear…" Even Wong bowed. _'For now.' _He thought as he hid his impulse to strike back at Phobos, but he knew that he could not defeat the Prince in a fight, at least not how he was now.

"Get out of my sight." Phobos ordered, allowing Wong and Cedric to pick themselves up and leave the throne room. The dark prince gave an exhausted sigh as he sat back down in his throne.

"My, that was quite the performance Phobos." Tarakudo congratulated with a smile. "I almost believed you myself."

Phobos revealed his own evil smile. "While I did put on a performance, I meant what I said. They're constant arguing grades on my patience. I may just throw those two into the Abyss for some peace and quiet, alone." Tarakudo chuckled at that before Phobos spoke to him. "So, our true objective, was it completed?"

"Yes. No one, not even the Guardians and Mr. Chan are aware of it." Tarakudo confirmed.

"Good." Phobos smiled, yet still maintained a serious demeanor. "But losing the Horn of Hypnos could still be somewhat problematic, given how rare they are. So, I am hoping that this girl is every bit as dark as you make her out to be. She certainly didn't give that impression when I first met her. Impulsive, yes; but not quite dark."

"Oh, trust me, my young friend. She has proven her worth before… and just as she was back then, she'll make a fine queen." Tarakudo commented with an evil chuckle.

* * *

_Heatherfield – Chan Clan Residence_

Jade Chan slept deeply in her room, having exhausted herself at the dance. However, as she slept, she remained unaware of the Symbol of the Shadowkhan that had been placed on her back-left shoulder, or the dark influence that was slowly corrupting her from the inside as the Symbol itself glowed ominously.

**Done.**

**Hope you guys like that surprise twist ending. I'm sure we all know what this means for Jade, as a certain Queen might make her reappearance. Up next is a pair of original chapters that I have been wanting to write ever since I've started this fic. I'm **_**really **_**excited to get them started as I've got quite a few surprises in store. **

**(PS, I'm aware of the whole thing in the cannon story on how the Horn of Hypnos can never truly be destroyed, just 'erased' temporarily before reappearing. Which, in all honesty, is kinda stupid. I get that the Horn is powerful, but it's not a Mystic Heart or anything like that. So I'm just changing it up slightly to the fact there are multiple Horns of Hypnos, they're just incredibly rare and hard to come by). **

**Anyways, I hope you like what I did with this chapter, and I hope you enjoy the future chapters I have planned for this story. Thank you all for your support and I look forward to posting the next chapter. Until then, stay safe and stay healthy out there. Peace out. **


	23. Return of the Queen

**Hi everyone, thanks again for waiting. This has been one chapter that I'm sure all of you have been really looking forward to reading, just as much as I've been looking forward to writing. And what happens here in this chapter, will have a significant impact on the entire series as a whole. So, be prepared for some incredible action, funny moments, and heart-warming scenes that is typical of both JCA and WITCH. With that being said, let's get started.**

**Return of the Queen**

"So, why am I going to the mountains again?" Elyon asked as she and Phobos were near the gate of the castle, ready to head out via what appeared to be a horse-drawn courage. Along with them, there was also Miranda, Daolon Wong, and Cedric in his human form, with a group of guards.

"A safety precautions." Phobos explained to his sister. "We have a special bunker up there if in the event the castle is breached. We just you need to go there and see if it's still effective."

"You're not coming?" Elyon asked.

"I have an important matter I must attend to here." Phobos replied. "But don't worry, Miranda will keep you company."

"And just in case any adversaries attempt to abduct you, your majesty, I shall assign you special guards to watch over you." Daolon Wong said as he drew his scepter. **"Gan! Ren! Chui!"**

With that chant, Daolon Wong had summoned the Dark Chi Enforcers, causing Elyon to look in surprise at their sudden appearance. "Whoa!"

"Do not fret, Princess Elyon. These men are your guards." Cedric assured.

Finn, Ratso, and Chow had found themselves meeting Elyon for the first time. "Heh, so you're Phobos' kid sister, eh?" Chow asked.

"Awe, she's cute." Ratso gushed.

"Hi." Elyon smiled and waved at the trio. "Nice to meet you."

"Same. Name's Finn. He's Ratso, that's Chow." Finn introduced himself and his friends to the princess.

"You three will watch over my sister from this point forward." Phobos told them. "Should anything happen, I'm sure you're aware of the consequences." He narrowed his eyes at the Enforces, causing them to gulp slightly.

"Eh… yeah. No worries at all… Big P." Finn chuckled nervously.

"Don't worry Phobos, I'm sure we'll get along just fine." Elyon told her brother. "So, please tone down the 'over-protective-big-brother' attitude. It's sweet, but I can only handle so much coddling."

"Of course, forgive me dear sister." Phobos gave a slight apologetic bow.

"Elyon, we should get going." Miranda told her 'friend.'

"Alright. See you guys later." Elyon waved her brother and everyone else goodbye as she, Miranda, and the Dark Chi Enforcers entered the closed carriage as it left the castle.

Once they were gone, Tarakudo suddenly appeared from the wall and floated above the dark prince. "She seems like a sweet kid. Pity you feel she doesn't truly belong to the Forces of Darkness. I can sense great power from her."

"Power that she doesn't yet understand it's true significance." Phobos commented.

"My prince, if I may, this is quite the risk we are taking." Daolon Wong said. "My spell should keep the girl from being spotted, but the risk of Elyon being spotted and taken by the rebels is high now."

"Perhaps, but I can't have Elyon here when our new ally arrives." Phobos replied.

"A new ally?" Cedric voiced in surprise as he and Wong did not expect this. "Who?"

Tarakudo chuckled. "Someone who can help tip the scales of this war in our favor. All we need do is wait… for the Queen has returned." His eyes began to glow a bright blue as the symbol of the Shadowkhan was barley seen in his pupils.

* * *

_Earth_

The mark of the Shadowkhan, still on the shoulder of Jade Chan, could not be seen over her current attire, which consisted of a black short-sleeved jacket, over a dark grey long-sleeved shirt. She also wore black pants that stretched down their ankles and black shoes. Jade had already walked downstairs from her room to the shop as Jackie, Uncle, and Tohru worked in the back.

"Heading to school, see you guys later!" Jade called to her family.

"Be careful, Jade." Jackie told his niece, but when he looked out to see Jade's current attire, he looked in surprise. "Jade, why are you wearing black?"

Jade shrugged. "Eh, it just felt right for today. What, there a problem with it?"

Jackie noticed there was a bit of irritation in Jade's voice near the end of her question, but he didn't appear to pay it much mind. "Eh… no, never mind. Have a good day."

Jade gave no response as she left out the front door. Uncle and Tohru both stepped out into the shop as they heard the whole thing.

"Someone is in bad mood." Uncle stated.

"Maybe she had trouble sleeping last night." Tohru assumed. "I mean, we did have to deal with an army of Trance Marchers last night."

"Perhaps." Jackie replied. "But… this feels rather familiar, and not the good kind."

* * *

_Sheffield Institute – Early afternoon_

The first half of the day at school went on like normal, up until Jade met up with Will, Irma, Cornelia, Hay Lin, Taranee, and Alchemy in the courtyard for lunch. Though most of them noticed the difference in Jade's attire.

"Hey Jade, what's with the new outfit?" Taranee asked. "Never really seen you in black before."

"Yeah, black is not in season." Cornelia said.

Jade rolled her eyes at the blonde. "Right, like I'm gonna take fashion sense from little miss 'I'm too afraid to use my powers because I'll chip a nail'."

"Ouch." Irma snickered as Cornelia sulked.

"Well I think you look cool, Jade." Hay Lin told her. "Black really suits you."

"Totally, you almost look like a ninja." Alchemy approved as well.

"Thank you. At least some of you have good taste." Jade smirked triumphantly as she bit into her sandwich.

However, Will looked with curiosity and caution at her friend. She couldn't quite explain it, but ever since she met up with her at their first class of the day, something felt off with Jade. Call it instinct, but she couldn't stop shaking this feeling, and even the way she had just spoken to Cornelia seemed to have sounded an alarm in her brain. They might not have gotten along most of the time, but this didn't quite feel the same.

Will's thoughts, and everyone else's lunch, was suddenly interrupted by a high-pitched yell as the seven girls turned to the side in shock to see Uriah and his gang surrounding Martin as Kurt gave the nerd a wedgie.

"Atomic wedgie!" Kurt exclaimed as he shook Martin by his underwear, causing his money to spill, which Clubber and Uriah were quick to get.

"Fiends! The principle will hear of this!" Martin stated, only for Kurt to pull on his underwear even more.

"Got the cash! Let's go!" Uriah stated as Kurt dropped Martin and they ran off with his money.

Martin attempted to pick himself up, but Irma and Hay Lin were already there to get him on his feet.

"You okay, Martin?" Hay Lin asked with concern.

"Yeah…" Once he laid his eyes on Irma, he tried to boost a confident smile. "It'll take a lot more than a wedgie to get old Martin down!"

Irma rolled her eyes. "Yeah, he's fine."

"Now, if you'll excuse me ladies, I got to get changed… for no other particular reason." He said confidentially, as he walked away.

"A wedgie? Really?" Will asked in annoyance as the girls looked in the direction Uriah and his gang ran off toward.

"And they took his money too." Taranee commented in the same disapproving tone. "What are they, five? Can't believe Nigel used to hang out with those guys."

Jade actually gave a small growl as her hair slowly began to wave, despite there being no breeze in the air. "You know? I wish somebody would give those guys a taste of their own medicine." As she said that however, nobody, not even Jade noticed the Mark of Tarakudo glowing underneath her clothes.

Meanwhile; Uriah, Kurt, and Clubber hid in the bushes around the corner, counting up the money they took. "Looks like we got about ten dollars." Clubber said.

"Yeah, enough to buy a whole pizza." Kurt smirked.

Uriah smirked as well. "Like taking candy from a baby."

However, the three looked in surprise and concern as the shadows in the area began to move on their own and surround the trio of bullies before they looked in genuine shock to see a trio of Shadowkhan emerge from the ground to glare at the frightened bullies.

A trio of screams got all the girls' attention. "What was that?!" Hay Lin exclaimed.

"It came from around the corner. Come on!" Will lead her friends to the source of the scream, and they didn't have to run far to see where it came from. However, all seven girls looked more than a little perplexed once they saw what was unfolding before their eyes.

The Shadowkhan were here, and they appeared to be giving Uriah and each of his friends a wedgie; One Shadowkhan per bully. They each pulled the bullies' underwear up so high, that it looked like they might tear, and even Uriah was on the verge of tears.

"What am I looking at right now?" Alchemy pretty much voiced everyone's thoughts before Will was the first to get serious as she prepared to pull out the Heart of Kandrakar, however…

"Hey! Back off ninjas!" Jade called to them. Right as she said that, the Shadowkhan immediately stopped, let go of the bullies, and disappeared into the shadows, much to the girls' confusion.

"Ghost ninjas! Ghost ninjas!" Kurt exclaimed.

"The school is haunted!" Clubber also screamed.

"Run for it, guys!" Uriah cried as he and his gang ran away, their outstretched underwear hanging from the back of their pants till they were out of sight.

Almost nobody could believe what they had just seen. "Um… did the Shadowkhan just show up to give Uriah and his pals some wedgies?" Irma asked.

"Right after they gave Martin a wedgie." Taranee said.

"And they just left after…" Hay Lin glanced at Jade but gave a small gasp upon seeing Jade's skin change color. "Uh Jade, are you okay? You're looking kinda blue."

"What? I'm not sad or anything. I…" Jade replied, not noticing that her skin had turned into a pale blue color, with her eyes starting to turn red as well.

"No, as your skin is _literally_ turning blue." Cornelia stated as she pulled out a makeup mirror from her pocket and showed Jade her own reflection.

Once Jade saw her own image, she gave a fearful gasp as she saw her hands were the same color as well. A look of dread formed on her face as she knew what this meant. "Oh no…" Without another word, Jade ran toward the building.

"Jade! Wait up!" Will was the first to run after her, followed by everyone else.

* * *

By the time the girls all reached the bathroom, Jade had already taken off her jacket and shirt, to look all over the upper area of her body. "Where is it?! Where is it?!" She exclaimed as she looked all over herself in a panic. She even pulled up her pants to look at her legs.

"Jade, what is going on?" Taranee questioned as all the other girls entered the restroom. "What are you even looking for?!"

Hay Lin happened to glance at the mirror that Jade was closest to as the she had her back turned toward it, that let Hay Lin see something that caught her attention. "Wait, Jade stop moving!" Hay Lin grabbed her by the shoulders, causing her to stop her fidgeting. She then turned Jade around to face the mirror as the other girls each looked in shock and surprise to see a certain mark on her back.

"Um… you guys wouldn't have happened… to spot a tattoo… that looks like Tarakudo's face… would you?" Jade stuttered as a sinking feeling of terror began to fill her whole body.

"Yeah… we see it." Irma winced as the other girls exchanged concerning looks.

"Hay Lin, call your Grandma." Will told her.

"Already on it." Hay Lin had already pulled out her cellphone.

* * *

_Uncle's Rare Finds_

Yan Lin had arrived at the Chan family's shop with Caleb, much to the surprise of Jackie, Tohru, and Uncle.

"Miss Lin, Caleb, what are you doing here?" Jackie asked.

"Got a call from the girls." Yan Lin answered. "Some sort of emergency, they're already on their way."

"But… school hasn't even gotten out yet." Jackie stated.

"Yell at us about that later!" Irma stated as she, and all the other girls suddenly arrived, with Will and Hay Lin helping Jade inside as she was hunched over, holding her stomach and head. "Something's seriously wrong with Jade!"

That got everyone's attention. "Jade!" Jackie was already at his niece's side as she was on her knees, while holding her head as it appeared, she was having a splitting headache, emphasized by her pained groans.

"What's going on with her?" Caleb questioned.

"Well, first her skin turned blue, then a bunch of Shadowkhan showed up, now she has a Tarakudo-tattoo on her back…" Cornelia tried to list, but that last remark really got everyone's attention.

"Did you just say she has a mark resembling Tarakudo on her?" Tohru asked with fear and concern.

"Yeah, right here." Will pulled down on Jade's shirt to reveal the mark; which caused Yan Lin and Caleb to look in surprise, while Jackie and Tohru both gasped.

"AIYA!" Uncle exclaimed with widened eyes of dread. "The Symbol of the Shadowkhan!"

"What… what in the world is something like that doing on her?!" Caleb questioned.

"Girls, you said you saw the Shadowkhan?" Jackie questioned with a serious expression.

"Yeah." Taranee explained. "Uriah and his gangs were giving Martin a wedgie, then the Shadowkhan showed up to do the same to them."

"Did Jade say anything before that happened?" Jackie questioned once more.

"Eh… she said she wished those guys got a taste of their own medicine…" Cornelia's eyes widened as she and the rest of her friends came to the same conclusion.

"Wait… did Jade send the Shadowkhan to do that!?" Alchemy exclaimed.

"Jade, Jade, look at me!" Jackie tried to get his niece to look at him, which she did as her face was already turning a darker blue than before, her eyes becoming an even brighter red, and a pleading expression on her face.

"Uncle Jackie I… I can hear him… it's like he's in my brain…!" Jade held her head painfully.

"It's okay, Jade. We'll fix this." Will said as she and Hay Lin kneeled down to try and give what comfort they could.

"Uncle, we need the tattoo-removal spell, now!" Jackie told his Uncle.

"Right away." Uncle nodded. "Tohru, Yan Lin, come with me!" Uncle got his apprentice and former love interest to come with him as they were about to head in the back, but suddenly a pair of Shadowkhan appeared to block their path, much to their surprise.

More shadows suddenly began to move around the floor and walls of the shop, much to everyone's shock as the Shadowkhan began to emerge from the shadows, and not just the typical humanoid-ninjas, but even a few Razor Khan were among them as they dropped from the ceiling to brandish their claws.

"Jade…" Hay Lin tried to reach out and hold her, only for Jade's hand to suddenly reach out and grab her by the wrist, while the other hand did the same for Will.

"Do not touch me!" Jade exclaimed, her voice becoming deeper, borderline demonic as she threw both Will and Hay Lin with such strength, they were sent crashing into the wall as everyone looked to Jade in shock and even a bit of fear.

"Jade, what are you doing?!" Cornelia exclaimed. However, she and everyone else gave a gasp once they saw her face. It was a very dark blue, her eyes were completely blood red, and even her hair waved with a whirlwind as her entire body began to hover in the air.

"Who is Jade?" She smirked evilly to show off her newly formed fangs. "Dread in fear, mortals. For the Queen of the Shadowkhan, reigns again!" Once that was said, all the summoned Shadowkhan, and even the Razor Khan, bowed to their 'Queen'.

"Did she just say… _Queen _of the Shadowkhan!?" Caleb exclaimed.

"Jade, stop!" Jackie told her. "This isn't you! You have to fight…!" Suddenly a pair of Razor Khan stood up to block their path as they, and the other summoned Shadowkhan prepared to fight the heroes, even the recovering Will and Hay Lin.

"No!" Jade ordered her minions as she descended to the ground. "They are not worth the effort. We have other business to attend to."

With that command, the Shadowkhan regrouped around Jade as they walked into a patch of shadows on the wall.

"Jade! Wait!" Will tried to run and stop them, but it was too late. The Shadowkhan, and their friend, had all vanished, leaving not even a trace left.

"What the heck just happened?!" Irma exclaimed.

"Uncle Jackie…?" Hay Lin turned to the man for some kind of explanation as he gave a worried sigh.

"It's a long story."

* * *

_Meridian, Phobos' Castle_

Cedric and Wong both walked through the halls of the castle, which had a series of guards lined across the walls. "Phobos appears to be getting rather close with Tarakudo." Cedric commented. "Maybe that demon seeks to take our place as the prince's right hand."

"Unlikely." Daolon Wong stated. "He is the _King _of the Shadowkhan, so it is unlikely he would settle with simply being an assistant…" However, he was interrupted by the sudden appearance of the transformed Jade, who had suddenly appeared in front of the pair.

"You!" Cedric hissed, recognizing the girl as he transformed into his massive snake-like form with a roar. "Friend to the Guardians! You made a grave mistake coming here!"

The guards immediately surrounded Jade, who didn't appear the least bit intimidated as a ring of Ninja Khan and Razor Khan appeared around her to defend her as they went on the attack. The Razor Khan easily sliced through the weapons of the guards while the Ninja Khan dealt devastating physical strikes to knock each guard down to the ground.

"The Shadowkhan?" Wong looked in shock, along with Cedric. "But she does not wear a mask! Why are they serving her?!"

"Lord Cedric. Daolon Wong." Jade addressed the pair. "If I recall correctly, you two have been trying to kill me and my friends since we first met. Perhaps it's time I try to return to favor." Jade snapped her fingers, causing the two tribes of Shadowkhan under her command to leap and surround the pair, brandishing claws or fists, or even katanas and shuriken as the dark wizard and shapeshifter looked more than a little nervous.

"As entertaining as that would be, I'm afraid I must insist otherwise." Phobos said as he entered the other end of the hallway with a casual, yet sinister, smile.

"You!" Jade exclaimed upon seeing him, resulting in a group of Ninja and Razor Khan suddenly appearing around Phobos, though unlike his servants, he didn't seem the least bit intimidated.

"My dear, there is no need to be so hostile." Phobos told her, trying to sound sincere.

"You threw me into a pit to rot when we first met and tried to kill me. Give me a reason why you shouldn't suffer a similar fate?" Jade questioned, her red eyes burning with hate.

"Because we need him." She looked toward a stained-glass window to see the image of a man's face move before Tarakudo emerged from it to greet the transformed girl. "Ah, the Queen has arrived. Finally coming to your senses?" He asked with an evil smile.

Now it was Jade's turn to smile. "Yes. Sorry it took so long."

* * *

_Earth – Uncle's Rare Finds._

"Okay, okay, okay, let me get this straight." Cornelia began. "Jade wanted to get a tattoo, so she drew the Symbol of the Shadowkhan on herself, which also gave her the power to _control _the Shadowkhan, and it turned her evil?"

"Yes, that is a basic summation of it." Jackie confirmed.

"Why the heck would she draw an evil symbol on herself anyway?!" Taranee exclaimed.

"She did not know at the time." Tohru said as he, Yan Lin, and Uncle worked on preparing a certain spell. "She only saw something that she thought was 'gnarly' and tried to pass it off as a real tattoo for everyone else at her old school."

"Um, she does know there's such a thing as _temp_-tats, right?" Irma pointed out.

Everyone else choose to ignore that as they continued to talk about how to handle this. "But… you can turn her back, right?" Hay Lin asked in a hopeful tone.

"Yes, Uncle can prepare tattoo-removal spell." Uncle said as he continued to work. "Spell almost finished."

"But, how did Jade even get that mark on her in the first place?" Caleb asked.

Will's eyes suddenly widened as she remembered their battle against the Trance Marchers the previous day. "That fight last night… Tarakudo showed up and he grabbed Jade for a second! That must have been when it happened!"

"But where did she even go?" Alchemy asked.

"Best guess, the Queen is going to meet her King." Cornelia assumed.

"Tarakudo." Jackie said in a grave tone.

"So, they're going to Meridian." Will said as she pulled out the map and shinned the Heart of Kandrakar over it, only to see nothing. "There's no portal?"

"But how could she get to Meridian without a portal?" Taranee asked.

"The Shadow Realm." Uncle answered. "It is the place of origin of the Shadowkhan and the Oni, a realm of darkness that exists separate from our own."

"And since Tarakudo is allied with Phobos, it stands to reason that they are using the Shadow Realm as a stop-point to bypass the Veil." Yan Lin assumed.

"Can't we do the same thing? Use the Shadow Realm to get to Meridian?" Irma asked.

"Not a good idea." Tohru replied. "In order to access the Shadow Realm, we'd each need to mark ourselves with the same symbol Jade is wearing. And if we did that, we'd be corrupted the same way she was."

"So, a portal is our only option." Jackie said as Will continued to look for a portal but found nothing yet.

"What I don't get is why Jade could summon _two _types of Shadowkhan, even those Razor Khan guys" Alchemy stated. "I thought you needed an Oni-mask to summon a tribe of them, and you can only wear one mask at a time!"

"Shendu was able to summon the Shadowkhan without wearing a mask." Uncle explained. "And Daolon Wong soon after his defeat. More than likely, Tarakudo has supplied Jade with a similar ability that enables her to summon more than one tribe."

"So, shouldn't she be able summon the other Shadowkhan tribes, too?" Hay Lin asked.

"Best guess, once the first two Oni masks were revealed and worn for the first time in centuries, the spells that were used to contain the original Oni were weakened." Yan Lin assumed. "Tarakudo has likely found a way to use that to his advantage, and subsequently, Jade."

"Even if we're able to get to Meridian, how are we supposed to free Jade?" Caleb questioned. "I mean, sure we got that spell-thing or whatever being made, but I'm willing to bet my new sword that Phobos and Tarakudo are going to keep us from getting to her."

"Caleb, you are not saying we should give up on her, are you?!" Will exclaimed, sounding offended as everyone else gave Caleb a similar expression.

"No! That's not what I'm saying!" Caleb quickly corrected himself. "What I am saying is that's going to be hard to get to her."

"I don't care, I already lost one friend to those bastards, there's no way I'm losing another!" Cornelia stated.

"She might not be a Guardian, but Jade is one of us." Taranee also stated.

"I don't care if I have to flood that whole damn castle to get her back!" Irma also voiced her conviction.

"She even stopped the Shadowkhan from attacking us when she left." Hay Lin said. "That means the Jade we know is still in there somewhere."

"That's right. She's our friend, and we'll get her back even if we have to fight _all _of Meridian to do it." Will said with a firm resolve.

Jackie couldn't help but smile proudly at all five of these girls. Though he knew how loyal they all were to Jade, as well as each other, hearing that they would do the equivalent of jumping into hell for those they care for was nothing short of heartwarming to them, and Jackie felt exactly the same way.

"Yes, we all will." Jackie nodded.

Caleb gave something of a small sigh with a smile of his own. "Alright, I'm in too."

"Count me in!" Alchemy raised her hand. "I might not have any magic, but there's no way I'm siting this one out!"

"Alright, the potion is ready." Yan Lin said as she held a tray containing twelve vials of a light purple liquid. "Each one of us is taking a potion."

"_All_ of us?" Taranee asked.

"Very important rule of magic. _Always_ make extra, just in case." Uncle pointed out.

"Grandma, you said 'each of us', does that mean you're coming to?" Hay Lin asked.

"Of course, I am." Yan Lin confirmed with a nod. "Nobody messes with my granddaughter's friend and gets away with it."

Jackie saw that nothing was going to change anyone's minds. They were all going to rescue Jade even if it was the last thing they'd do. "Alright. The second we find a portal; we'll go to Section 13 and get the Talismans."

"Well then we better get going." Will said with a smirk as a bright X began to glow on the map. "Cause we just got a portal."

* * *

_Meridian – Phobos Castle_

Phobos walked alongside Cedric and Daolon Wong, with Tarakudo hovering above them, toward the throne room. "So, this was your plan? Turn one of the Guardians' allies into their enemy?" Cedric asked.

"Indeed." Phobos confirmed. "Losing Elyon may have dealt them a blow, but they are still willing to fight."

"With a close friend of theirs however, one who has _fought _the Forces of Darkness _with _them, it'll be all the more shattering for Mr. Chan and those young Guardians." Tarakudo smirked.

"I fear you may be underestimating them, Tarakudo." Daolon Wong said. "They will more than likely come to rescue this so-called Queen."

"Oh, that's exactly what I'm counting on." The Lord of all Oni snickered.

Phobos shared a smirk as well as this 'Queen of the Shadowkhan' served as not only an ally, but both the best bait for his enemies, and even the one who will spring the trap they've prepared. Once they entered the throne room however, Phobos looked in surprise to see who was currently sitting on his throne.

Jade, who was now clad in her attire as the Shadowkhan Queen, consisting of a black dress with a dark purple top with dramatic spikes coming from the back. She sat on the throne of Phobos as a group of Shadowkhan treated her to a bowl of cookies and one even painted her toenails black.

"What do you think you're doing?" Phobos questioned as he stepped forward.

"Treating myself. What does it look like?" Jade answered as if it were obvious.

"Yes, but you are doing so on _my _throne." Phobos remarked with narrowed eyes.

Jade gave her titular scoff. "Please, you're a Prince. I'm a _Queen_. By definition, I outrank you. So, maybe you should get on your knees and I might overlook your tone, Anti-Prince-Charming."

Phobos practically snarled at that. While he was open to the idea of having allies, he did not tolerate any kind of disrespect. "Clearly you've forgotten whose domain this is. Maybe I should remind you." However, before he could make any sort of moves, a group of four Razor Khan dropped from the ceiling to surround Phobos and show off their claws.

"Oh? By all means, remind me." Jade challenged. "If you dare."

Phobos seemed more than ready to fight, but the hostility was brought to a halt by Tarakudo who hovered in between them. "Now, now, children, we're all on the same side here." He then glanced towards Jade. "Your highness, I understand why you must feel to assert yourself given how our new allies were once your enemies, but we must all be respectful to one another. Otherwise, our mutual foes will find a way to take advantage of our differences and use it against them. So, would it hurt to play nice a little?"

"Hmmm." Jade began to think. "I'll consider it."

"That's good to hear." Tarakudo said as he cast a glance toward Phobos, hoping for a reply.

"Very well." Even Phobos seemed to agree as he backed down. "But that is _my _throne, and I would suggest you seek permission the next time you use it."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Jade brushed off, much to Phobos' annoyance as his eyebrow twitched.

* * *

Meanwhile; outside the castle, Blunk had led the group consisting of Jackie, Will, Uncle, Irma, Tohru, Hay Lin, Yan Lin, Taranee, Caleb, Cornelia and Alchemy up a hillside. Once they reached the top, they stuck closer to the ground as they saw the castle in view.

"Target in sight." Will narrowed her eyes at the castle.

"Alright, so how do we get in?" Alchemy asked.

"Blunk know many ways." Blunk said. "Many ways to sneak in and find shiny stuff."

"Any ways that allow _us _to sneak in?" Caleb asked, somewhat skeptically.

Blunk looked a bit nervous. "Eh… humans too big. Big man _way _to big." Tohru gave a slight glare in the Passling in response. "But, good kind big. Blunk not saying big is bad thing."

"What about Elyon?" Cornelia asked. "I mean, I know we're here for Jade, but maybe we can do both."

"Elyon not important." Uncle quickly stated.

"What Jin is trying to say is, Elyon's rescue is not as urgent as Jade's." Yan Lin tried to explain in a more sincere tone. "Phobos is waiting for Elyon's power to grow and reach its peak before he takes her power, so he will be keeping her safe for the time being."

Cornelia knew they had a point, but that didn't stop her, as well as Alchemy, from expressing clear disappointment. "I'm sorry Cornelia." Jackie told her. "We'll rescue Elyon, I promise. But right now, Jade needs our help more."

"Alright." Cornelia reluctantly accepted, but while she was disappointed, they couldn't get Elyon today, she would not be holding back in their rescue of Jade.

"So, what's the plan? How do we get in if this place is probably crawling with ninjas by now?" Hay Lin asked.

"Sneaking in will prove to be difficult." Tohru responded. "Jade might be reckless at times, but she's not stupid. Using stealth and sneaking is what let us free her from the Shadowkhan's control the first time, she'll likely see it coming this time around."

"Yeah, and with guys like Phobos, Tarakudo, Wong, _and _Cedric, they're probably expecting us." Taranee said.

"So, why don't we just go in magic blazing?" Irma suggested. "Just Guardian up, drop in on the throne room and blast our way in?"

"That's actually a pretty good idea." Taranee said. "With all the times we tried to sneak in, a direct assault will be the last thing any of them expect."

The entire group looked amongst each other and saw that was good idea, a direct assault did keep many of their options open and taking the enemy by surprise could give them a chance to get to Jade with the potion.

"Alright, does everyone have a potion?" Jackie asked as everybody, including Blunk, but excluding Will, had their own vial of the potion which they all shown to him before putting it away.

With nothing else needing to be said, Will took out the Heart of Kandrakar and said the magic words. **"Guardians Unite!"**

* * *

Back inside the castle; Jade, Phobos, Tarakudo, Cedric, and Daolon Wong had gathered together as they appeared to be discussing some form of strategy.

"Now that it seems we have two tribes of Shadowkhan currently under our control, it should be easier to sniff out the Rebellion." Cedric stated.

"Why do you need to sniff it out? I can tell you where it is." Jade smirked. "I've been in their base before."

"Oh, is that so?" Phobos smirked. "It appears you've already proven your worth."

"But… I want something in return." Jade quickly said, causing Phobos smile to vanish.

"And what exactly is it that you desire, my dear?" Tarakudo asked.

"I want their base as my own palace." Jade answered. "I might be willing to work with you, but I'm not one to share, least of all with the same people who have tried to kill me in the past."

"And we sincerely apologize for that." Daolon Wong bowed. "But, before we make any promises, we'll need to know the details regarding their base, just so we don't give away anything of particular value that…"

***BOOM!***

The entire roof of the throne room was suddenly blown away as the girls of WITCH along with Jackie, who was hovering in the air via the Rooster Talisman; Caleb, who was being carried by Cornelia; Tohru, who was being carried by Will and the hovering Jackie; Alchemy, in the form of a hawk with the Monkey Talisman; Yan Lin, being carried by Hay Lin; and Uncle, being carried by Hay Lin.

"Give us our Jade back!" Will exclaimed as she brandished one hand to shoot with the Dragon Talisman, while Taranee, Hay Lin, and Irma shot their respective elements, along with heat-beam eyes from Caleb via the Pig Talisman, blasts of Chi-Magic from Uncle and Yan Lin's blowfishes, and even Cornelia threw in a series of rocks.

The surprise was enough to catch the villains off guard as they were either blasted back or attempted to find cover. Jade snarled at her old friends as they set down on the ground, only to be suddenly surrounded by a small army of Shadowkhan and Razor Khan.

"Crush them!" The Queen of the Shadowkhan ordered as they leapt at the heroes, forcing them all to scatter as the villains regrouped to try and counterattack.

Will ducked underneath the slice from one Razor Khan and shot it with a blast from the Dragon Talisman, before ducking to avoid a magic blast from the hovering Phobos who looked less than pleased.

"You dare attack me in my own palace!?" Phobos was ready to blast Will, but he never got the chance as Jackie flew in with a speed advantage, wielding both the Rabbit and Rooster Talismans to deliver a kick to Phobos to send him crashing to the wall.

"Yes, we dare!" Jackie stated as he glared at Phobos. "Because you tried to take away someone that we hold dear!"

Phobos only growled as he shot more blasts of magic at Jackie and Will, forcing them to scatter and avoid the blasts.

Tohru, Cornelia, and Caleb came together as they were surrounded on all sides by the Shadowkhan, but Cornelia shook up the ground with her powers, causing the enemies to loose balance as Caleb blasted them with heat-beam eyes before rushing forward to slice several of them with his katana while Tohru slapped and punched them away with his own strength. However, he didn't appear to notice Cedric looming behind him as the massive shapeshifter used his tail to smack Tohru against the wall.

Cornelia and Caleb looked ready to jump in and help him. "No! Let me handle Cedric, you two just stay focus on the task at hand!" Tohru stated as he got up to face Cedric alone. The sumo charged at the shapeshifter as they locked hands and pressed their own strength against the other.

Seeing how Tohru could handle Cedric on his own, Cornelia and Caleb got to work dispatching the Shadowkhan. With a group of Razor Khan charging in first, Cornelia placed her hand on the ground to grow a series of roots from the floor to ensnare and impale the Razor Khan as they were the most dangerous, leaving a small group of Ninja Khan remaining as Caleb blasted them into oblivion with his heat-beam eyes.

Hay Lin created a set of razor-sharp air-disks in her hands, which she sent out to slice through and destroy any Shadowkhan that she set her eyes on, appearing to control the air-disks with her mind alone. Irma provided some cover as a trio of Razor Khan attempted to ambush her from behind, which she was quick to deal with by blasting a condensed steam of water from her hands to knock them back.

Alchemy had used the Monkey Talisman to transform into a charging rhino, which allowed her to charge in and take down a group of six Shadowkhan, including two Razor Khan. When several Shadowkhan tried to get the jump on her from above, she transformed into a giant squid and used her tentacles to bat them away. Despite that, she still appeared to be surrounded, but help came in the form of Taranee who created a large vortex of flame to surround herself and Alchemy, who changed back to normal, to keep the Shadowkhan at bay.

Uncle shot a series of chi-blasts from his dual blowfish at Daolon Wong, who swung his staff to erect a barrier of dark magic to protect himself before blasting his own attacks at Uncle who rolled along the floor to dodge the blasts before combining his blowfish together for a condensed blast of chi-magic, which Daolon Wong countered with his own large blast of dark chi-magic, both beams collided as Uncle and Wong recited their respective chants. However, this appeared to be a distraction for three Ninja Khan and two Razor Khan to ambush him from behind, however…

"Hey! Over here!" One chi-blast from Yan Lin's blowfish got their attention as one Razor Khan was destroyed. "Who wants a piece of Grandma?" She challenged as the four remaining Shadowkhan charged her.

Yan Lin ducked underneath the slice of the remaining Razor Khan before picking it up in one hand with little effort and throwing it away at a Ninja Khan and blasting both away with her blowfish. The last two Ninja Khan tried to come at her from both sides, but she flexed her fingers at them to send both crashing on the walls on the far side of the chamber.

"I may be old, but I'm still as strong as an ox." Yan Lin smirked as she brandished the Ox Talisman.

Jade hovered alongside Tarakudo as the Queen and King of the Shadowkhan watched the fights unfolding before them, with the heroes appearing to be wining, but Jade solved that issue as she summoned even more Ninja and Razor Khan to join in the fight.

"You certainly are a quick thinker, my dear." Tarakudo complemented his Queen. "And you're only so young. Just imagine how strong you'll be when you're all grown up."

However, what neither appeared to notice, was Blunk climbing down from a pillar behind Jade. As he scaled down, the Passling reached into his clothes to pull out a vial of the potion. Once he was close enough to Jade, he leapt to try and pour it on her from behind, only for a Shadowkhan to emerge from the wall and grab Blunk by the feet in mid-jump.

Blunk screamed as he was hung upside down by his feet. "Blunk not steel this! It given to Blunk!" He pointed to the potion, only for it to be snatched away by Jade as she looked at it with a scowl.

"Of course, they'd try something like this!" Jade threw the potion to the ground, the vial smashing on impact, and the potion turning into dust. "But, it's likely not the _only_ potion!"

"Then I think it's time we put these games to an end." Tarakudo said as he unleashed one of his most powerful psychic blasts ever. This blast rocked the entire throne room as everyone, hero and villain, even the Shadowkhan, were all blasted away, smacking hard on the walls to stop the fighting, even the Shadowkhan were all destroyed upon impact.

Before the heroes even attempted to get back up, a duo of Ninja Khan emerged from the ground below each of them and grabbed their arms to pin behind their backs and force each of them to their knees. All of them; Jackie, Will, Uncle, Irma, Cornelia, Hay Lin, Taranee, Yan Lin, Alchemy, Caleb, even Tohru were subdued as Phobos, Wong, and Cedric recovered.

"Search them!" Jade ordered as she and Tarakudo faced the heroes.

The Shadowkhan wasted no time in following their Queen's orders, searching the captured heroes, despite their protests.

"Hey! Watch where you're grabbing!" Cornelia exclaimed as one of the Shadowkhan pulled a potion from her person. One-by-one, a potion was pulled from each of them, excluding Will, who didn't appear to be possessing any. Tarakudo then used his powers to telekinetically grab each vial, uncork them in mid-air, and pour out their contents on the floor.

"No!" Jackie exclaimed as they all looked in shock.

"It would seem that you've all run out of tricks." Cedric hissed as he, Phobos, and Wong regrouped with Jade and Tarakudo.

"And it also seems our Queen knows where she belongs." Tarakudo smirked proudly at Jade.

"Only because you freaking brainwashed her!" Irma exclaimed.

"That's right! If Jade were in her right mind, she would have kicked all of you to the curb!" Cornelia also exclaimed.

"Come on, Jade! We're your friends! Snap out of it!" Alchemy practically begged.

Jade scoffed. "You _were_. Things are different I have new friends."

"You mean this quartet of evil jerks?!" Hay Lin exclaimed. "What about all those fun times we had together!?"

"You waste your words." Phobos told them. "Face the inevitable, 'Jade' is ours. And I think it's time she proves it once and for all." He reached down to her shoulder. "It's time to end this…" Suddenly, Jade grabbed Phobos by the wrist and began to squeeze it, much to his surprise.

"My minions were the ones who captured them!" Jade told Phobos. "_I _will decide their fate! Not you!"

"Why do you hesitate, little one?" Cedric hissed. "They're right here! End them!"

"Perhaps it is because you still have feelings for them?" Wong glared, only to be silenced as he and Cedric were quickly surrounded by a group of Razor Khan

"You do _not _question me!" Jade exclaimed.

"This is quite enough." Tarakudo attempted to break it up.

With the enemies appearing distracted; Jackie, Yan Lin, and Uncle looked towards Will and gave her a subtle message with a nod, which Will seemed to understand as she nodded back.

* * *

_Flashback_

"Wait… you want me to absorb the potion into the Heart?" Will asked as she was with Jackie, Uncle, Tohru, and Yan Lin in the backroom of the shop, just before they left to Meridian.

"Will, you should already know the Heart of Kandrakar possess the ability to absorb other forms of magic, be they potions or even artifacts." Yan Lin said.

"Yeah, I know." Will replied as she held out the aforementioned jewel. "I used it to absorb the amnesia-potion Valmont used on Tohru and cured him with it."

"And the same principle should apply to this potion as well." Tohru explained. "Like we've said before, Jade is smart, and under the influence of Tarakudo, she'll see through our plan to have extra potion if in the event any one is destroyed."

"Okay, I think I get it." Will seemed to understand. "But what's to stop the bad guys from just taking the Heart. Valmont was able to do that twice."

"Valmont is mortal human." Uncle explained. "Heart of Kandrakar is made from extraordinarily powerful good magic. But those born of _evil_ nature, such as Shadowkhan or demons, or incapable of touching it. Once Heart absorbs potion, you will pull Jade out of Tarakudo's influence."

"Why me? I mean… Jackie can't you do it?" Will asked him. "You did it before."

"Only because of the potion, and it was Tohru who used it when the one I had was destroyed." Jackie explained.

"But…" Will still seemed unsure, but Jackie put a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Will… Jade is my niece and I love her dearly, the two of us have strong bond as family." Jackie explained. "But, you two have something that I believe is even stronger. Because of that, I truly believe that if anyone can reach her, it is you. I know you can save her, and I have nothing but complete faith in you, Will."

The redhead looked toward the man she called her friend and mentor in awe. He was placing not only his complete trust, but even Jade's fate, entirely in her hands. The look in Jackie's eyes told her that he knew she could save her. She glanced at Tohru, Yan Lin, and even Uncle has they all felt exactly the same way.

So, with a firm resolve, Will clenched the Heart closer to her body as a determined expression formed on her face. "I'll do it. I'll save her."

_End Flashback_

* * *

Will, still restraint by the Shadowkhan, used the momentary distraction of the villains' argument to draw out the Heart's power, channeling not only the magic of the potion it recently absorbed, but also the Heart's own inner power to blast a wave of pure good magic that destroyed not only the two Shadowkhan restraining her, but all the others that had restraint her friends.

Now that she was free, Will wasted no time, flying straight at Jade, much to the villains' surprise, grabbing her and tackling her to the ground close to the throne.

"Let go of me!" Jade struggled.

"No! I'll never let you go, Jade!" Will exclaimed.

"Stop her!" Phobos ordered as he, Wong, Cedric, and Tarakudo attempted to pull them apart; only to have their way barred by Jackie, Irma, Hay Lin, Cornelia, Taranee, Tohru, Uncle, Caleb, Alchemy, and Yan Lin.

"You'll have to get past us, first!" Jackie stated as they charged at the villains to keep them away from Will and Jade. The remaining four Guardians attacked Tarakudo with their respective elements as he tried to use pin own powers against theirs; Jackie and Caleb engaged Phobos; Uncle and Yan Lin blasted their respective chi-magic at Daolon Wong, who used his own magic to counter it; and Tohru locked again with Cedric, while Alchemy used the Monkey Talisman to turn into a gorilla and leap onto the evil shapeshifter.

Blunk looked in awe as he saw Will using the Heart's power to encase herself and the struggling Jade in a sphere of pink energy, not just to keep Jade from escaping, but to keep the villains out if they get past their friends.

"Jade! You're not yourself! You're not the Queen of the Shadowkhan!" Will tried to tell her as she pulled the struggling Jade into an embrace, the power of the Heart of Kandrakar shining not only its bright pink color, but also with a purple glow which was from the potion that it absorbed.

"What do you know!?" Jade exclaimed as she continued to fight against Will. "You have all this power! I had nothing!"

"You have us!" Will exclaimed, holding Jade tighter. "You have our friends! You have your family! You have me!"

Despite the pleas however, Jade still attempted to fight Will back. "Why are you doing this?! Why are you trying so desperately to change me back into that weakling?!"

"Because you're my best friend!" Will practically screamed.

Jade's blood-red eyes widened once she heard those words. She looked at Will with an expression of honest shock, as if she had just told her something that rocked her whole world.

"What…?"

"You're my best friend, Jade!" Will told her as she put both her hands firmly on her shoulders. "When I first got into all of this, you were the one who helped me, who showed me what I could be, you and your Uncle. When I was kidnapped by Phobos, you didn't even hesitate to try and save me, a girl you barley even knew. When I told you why I didn't like birthdays, or what my old friends did to me, you helped me and supported me, you even made me a gift out of magic. After what happened to Elyon, even when Cornelia said it was my fault and I didn't blame her, you still stood up for me. You've always been there for me, Jade. You're the best friend I ever had, and I don't want to lose you!" Tears built up in Will's eyes. "Please Jade! I am begging you! Come back to us!"

A single tear escaped from Jade's red eyes as they turned more human, albeit still red, and her skin turned into a lighter blue. "Will…?" Jade's voice was starting to turn to normal as well.

"Yeah… it's me. I'm here, Jade." Will smiled, tears still in her eyes.

Suddenly, Jade's eyes turned blood red again as the dark influence inside tried to gain control again, despite Jade's attempts to stop it. "Will! I… I can't stop it! It's too strong! Help me!"

Will pulled Jade into a tight embrace, the Heart of Kandrakar wedged in-between them as it glowed even brighter. "I'm here, Jade! I'll help you! We'll face the darkness together! You're not alone!"

The entire sphere began to glow a bright pink, which halted all the fighting as the heroes and villains looked to the sphere in either surprise or awe. Inside, Will poured as much of the Heart's power into Jade's body as she could as Jade tried to help absorb as much of it into herself to try and purge her body of the dark influence. On her back, the Symbol of the Shadowkhan began to glow a bright pink as it appeared to have vanished, or rather absorbed into her. Will's body began to glow a bright pink color as Jade's body, at first appeared to change into pitch black, but then changed into a bright purple color. Both colors mixed together as the sphere glowed and shinned even brighter, almost like a miniature sun. It was so bright, that all the heroes and villains had to shield their eyes from the intense light.

The light shinned its brightest as it shot into the sky, sending a wave of pink and purple magic out of the castle and like a large explosion.

When the dust cleared in what was left of the throne room, everyone had been blown back from the shockwave of pure magic. Jackie was among the first to regain his senses, along with Irma, Hay Lin, Taranee, and Cornelia.

"Jade…?" Jackie looked toward the thick smoke where the sphere of magic was, right below the throne. "Jade! Will!"

Jackie, and the girls quickly ran or flew toward the smoke. "Will! Jade!" Irma, Hay Lin, Taranee, and Cornelia each all called out as they, along with Caleb, Tohru, Uncle, Yan Lin, Alchemy, and even Blunk ran toward the smoke as well.

However, they stopped as they saw Will walk out of the smoke, carrying Jade in her arms. Though she still wore her attire as the Queen of the Shadowkhan, her skin was its normal color, her hair was also back to normal as she appeared unconscious in Jade's arms.

"She's okay." Will assured with a smile. "She's just knocked out…" She said as Jade gave a slight groan, indicating that it was true.

"Thank goodness." Jackie caressed his niece's cheek with a loving smile, as everyone else smiled in relief as well.

However, that relief soon came to an end, as they heard the villains beginning to recover, even Tarakudo had to shake the cobwebs from his head.

"Well, that certainly was something." The Oni King commented.

"But now, we can…" However, Phobos didn't get a chance to finish as Taranee, Irma, Cornelia, and Hay Lin loomed over them with angry glares of their own.

"Taking Elyon away because she was your sister was one thing…" Cornelia growled.

"But what you all tried to do to Jade…!" Even Hay Lin appeared to have lost her patience.

"You just made this all the more personal!" Taranee stated with glare.

"You jerkwads want a war?! You got one!" Irma exclaimed as Hay Lin tried to use as much of her own power to generate a massive tornado in the throne room. Tohru stuck close to Will, who still held onto the unconscious Jade, along with Jackie, Alchemy, Uncle, Yan Lin, Caleb, and Blunk, to keep them from blowing away.

Already, the tornado had sucked up Wong, along with Phobos, and even the enormous Cedric was pulled in as well. Though Tarakudo maintained his ground as his powers prevented him from getting sucked up. With three of the villains already spinning round and around in the twister; Taranee, Irma, and Cornelia threw in their respective elements to mix scolding hot flames, water at high pressure, and even razor-sharp chunks of rock to burn, scold, and slice at Phobos, Cedric, and Wong as the elemental power and debris mixed into the tornado, which began to rise high above the throne room outside the castle, via the destroyed rooftop before the elemental tornado finally exploded to send Phobos, Cedric, and Daolon Wong falling outside and around the castle, all three screaming along the way.

The dust and wind began to vanish, as Tarakudo appeared to be the only villain to remain. "Flashy." He commented as he blew some debris from his mustache. "But now I will…" However, Jackie stood in front of him as he gave the Oni-King a look of pure ire that it made even Tarakudo gulped.

"You will _never _lay a finger on Jade, again!" Jackie took out an onion from his pocket and threw it at the Oni's face.

"AH! My eyes!" Tarakudo cried as he began to 'cry' green energy. "My eyes!" He vanished in a puff of smoke as Jackie and the four Guardians turned their attention back toward the unconscious Jade and their friends who still looked over her.

"We should go." Jackie said.

"No arguments here." Caleb agreed as the Guardians and Jackie all took flight, the former using the Rooster and Rabbit talismans. Alchemy took the form of a giant hawk with the Monkey Talisman to allow Yan Lin, Uncle, and Blunk to ride on top while Cornelia carried Caleb, Irma and Taranee carried Tohru, and Will carried Jade. The group then flew out from what was left of the throne room, their mission accomplished.

* * *

Jade's eyes slowly opened as she gave a weak groan. "Where… where am I…?"

"You're home, Jade." Jackie said with a smile as it was revealed Jade was in her room, tucked in her bed, with Jackie, Will, Uncle, Cornelia, Tohru, Hay Lin, Irma, Taranee, Caleb, Yan Lin, Alchemy, and even Blunk all gathered around her bed with smiles.

"Guys, I…" Jade looked down in shame. "I'm sorry… what I did… I…"

"Jade that wasn't your fault." Will told her. "It was Tarakudo."

"But don't worry, we sent him and his pals a warning not to mess with you again." Irma smirked.

"And considering we 'remodeled' Phobos' throne room, I think they got the message." Cornelia had a smirk of her own.

"But… you went through all that because of me…" Jade still felt some guilt. "Maybe I should have… OW!" She felt a familiar dope-slap on her forehead.

"Jade overthink!" Uncle chastised. "You are family, and family always helps and supports each other. You are not a burden, and don't you ever once consider yourself to be!"

"Uncle…" Jade honestly had no idea what to say.

"He's right Jade." Taranee smiled. "You're our friend, we'd do all that again in a heartbeat to save you."

"Cause that's what friends do." Hay Lin said as she pulled Jade into a hug. "No matter what, we always got your back."

"Not just friends, but friends for life." Alchemy said with her own smile.

"Eh, yeah." Even Caleb spoke up. "I get you and I are not particularly close, but you can still consider me a friend to." He patted Jade's back with a slight smile.

Tohru opened his massive palm to show Jade half of the necklace he gave her after the Seymour/Hsi-Wu incident. "You remember this, Jade? Ying and Yang, big and small, you and me."

"Guys…" Jade was almost brought to tears at their support but was slightly caught off-guard as Blunk handed Jade an old, partly rotted, flower.

"Girls like flowers. Blunk like Jade-girl. Want see Jade-girl smile, not cry." The Passling gave a toothy smile as despite the flower's poor condition, Jade still accepted it none-the-less.

"All these people, including myself, treasure you Jade." Yan Lin told her sincerely. "No matter how much trouble you find yourself in, we'll always be there to help you."

"Jade, you are surrounded by so many people who care about you." Jackie began. "And you might be reckless and get into more trouble than often, we will never stop caring for you, especially me. You are my family, and I love you."

Jade smiled as she tried to wipe the tears from her eyes. "Thanks guys."

Everyone smiled as they each patted Jade on the back or gave her a half-hug to welcome her back. "Now, I believe it's time we let Jade get some rest." Jackie told the group as they began to leave.

"Um… Will… you got a minute?" Jade stopped the redhead from leaving.

Will smiled back as she exchanged a look from Jackie, who gave a nod before closing the door as everyone else left, leaving the two girls alone in the room as Will sat on Jade's bed beside her.

"What's up?"

"Did… did you really mean what you said?" Jade asked. "About… me… being your best friend…"

"Absolutely, one hundred percent." Will confirmed without a second of hesitation. "You are my best friend in the whole world, Jade. And no matter what, that is _never _going to change. Ever since we first met, you've always had my back. And you better darn well believe I got yours."

Jade didn't even bother to fight back her tears of joy as she smiled. "Yeah… you're my best friend to." She and Will exchanged a hug, the kind that only the best of friends would share. Once they parted, Jade gave a smirk. "So, what do you say tomorrow, we borrow the Talismans and prank Uriah again? Maybe even trick him into going into the girls' bathroom."

Will snickered. "There's the mischievous Jade we all know and love. Sounds like a plan." She ruffled Jade's hair before standing back up. "Good night."

"Night." Jade let herself fall to sleep as Will left the bedroom.

Once outside, Will was greeted by Jackie, who happened to hear their whole conversation as he gave Will a smile and a thumbs up, which she was happy to return.

* * *

Meanwhile, within a massive, ivory-white citadel, one that also carried a bright purple glow in the air, there was a chamber that held a single pedestal with five glowing spheres that spun and rotated around the center. One was glowing pink, the other a red-orange color, another was a bright green, one was blue, and another was white. Ever since their formation centuries ago, there had been five spheres that continued to spin around and around, no sign of stopping or slowing down.

That is, until now, when a _sixth _sphere had materalized itself, seemingly out of thin air, and spun along with the other five. This sixth sphere was a purple color and seemed to radiate a similar energy the others were giving off.

"I don't believe it." One of five individuals spoke in awe as they saw the sixth sphere rotating with the others. "A _sixth _Auremere?! How is this possible!?" A woman, who appeared to be something of a humanoid cat, exclaimed in obvious shock.

This 'cat-woman' was one of five individuals, all wearing white robes, that had gazed upon these 'Auremeres' with their own eyes. One was a tall, bald man; another was an elderly, blonde woman; one was another tall man with a long white beard, and the last one was a short individual, also with a beard, and antenna-like features on his head.

"This shouldn't be possible. There have only been _five _Auremeres…!" The blonde woman voiced with worry. "For a sixth to form… it… it… I don't even see how it can be…"

"Regardless, we see it with our own eyes." The bald man, who appeared to be the leader of the group said in a calm, yet concerned, tone of voice. "There are now indeed six Auremeres, and from all indication, this one is just as powerful as the central one of Quintessence."

"What can we do about this?" The blonde woman asked.

"Put an end to it, of course!" The cat-woman stated as if it were obvious. "This could only spell trouble! True, the powers of the Auremeres are weakened due to us raising the Veil, but if this new Auremere is as powerful as the central one… not to mention this one appears of darker nature."

"Is there anything that we even _can _do?" The short man with the antennas asked. "If we tamper with the Auremeres, it could have disastrous effects on the Heart, and give the Forces of Darkness an advantage over us."

"Phobos on his own is dangerous enough… but the King of the Shadowkhan allied with him…!?" The tall, bearded man spoke with worry. "I don't even want to think of what those two can do together!"

"And I believe this may be the universe's way to counter that." The bald man said.

"What do you mean?" The blonde woman asked.

"As we all know, the universe seeks balance. The bald man began. "Order and chaos, good and evil, yin and yang. The alliance of Tarakudo and Phobos, left unchecked, could have disastrous consequences. However, I believe that the appearance of this sixth Auremere, is the universe's way of strengthening the Forces of Light so that they can better meet the challenge. For that reason, I believe it is best we let events unfold."

The woman with cat-like features looked to their leader in shock. "What?! Do nothing?! This… this could be disastrous! You said yourself this Auremere is just as powerful as the one of Quintessence, and we've all seen just how corruptive that can be! But if this one… if we leave it unchecked… it could damage the Guardians' connection to Kandrakar! That's a far greater danger than when Nerissa…"

"If it gets to that point, we will intervene." The bald man assured. "However, while this one may appear to have something of a 'darker' origin, I can sense the incredible potential it has to be as a force for good. So, we will do as we always have, watch and observe." He gave a small smile as he continued to watch the six Auremeres circle around each other in unison. "Darkness may rise, but light always rises to meet it."

**Done.**

**Wow. That chapter was a lot of fun. We got to see Jade as the Queen of the Shadowkhan again and I had so much fun writing her, especially her interactions with the other villains, particularly with how much she trolled Phobos. (LOL!) **

**We also see that Will and Jade have become best friends, and their bond is only going to get stronger. And it's not just Will, all the other girls are close to Jade as what Tarakudo and Phobos tried to do to her made their conflict with him even more personal than when Elyon was taken. We even got another look at 'angry-Jackie' from Season 1, and we all know, despite how much of a nice guy he is, you do **_**not **_**want to make Jackie Chan angry, you wouldn't like him when he's angry.  
(Points to those who get that reference)**

**On a smaller note; Finn, Ratso, and Chow have now become Elyon's official bodyguards, which should be fun.**

**But, on a more important note, what exactly does this scene at the end foreshadow? I'm sure you can all take a guess, but you won't get a definitive answer till the next chapter. (Though I'll give you a hint that it may, or may not, have to do with Jade's status as the Ben-Shui Chosen One). So, what does this mean for our heroes? Find out in the next chapter of J-WITCH!**

**Stay safe and stay healthy out there. Peace out. :)**


	24. Ghosts and Shadows

**Hi everyone. Thanks again for waiting, this is one chapter that I've been wanting to write for some time as something **_**very **_**special happens here that was hinted before in the next chapter, and now is the grand unveiling! (No pun intended).**

**With nothing else needing to be said, let's get started. **

**Ghosts and Shadows**

Caleb climbed the walls of Phobos castle, easily able to scale via a grappling hook that he borrowed from Section 13, while also wearing a parachute on his back. Blunk also accompanied him as he hung onto Caleb's back. They reached the window that they hoped would be their destination.

"You sure this is the window you saw her at?" Caleb asked his Passling companion.

"Blunk totally sure." Blunk nodded.

With that, Caleb had climbed quietly into the room, and hid behind the bed where Elyon appeared to be sleeping. He noticed a pair of guards on the other side, both were asleep as well and somehow appeared to be standing up. Caleb motioned for Blunk to be quiet as he quickly snuck around the bed and right behind the pair of guards to smack their helmeted heads against each other and knock them unconscious. Acting quickly, Caleb took off his belt and used it as a makeshift restraint to bind their arms before making his way to the sleeping princess.

"Sorry to disturb your nap Elyon, but we're outta here." He tried to shake her awake, only for his hand to pass right through Elyon's body before it evaporated into a transparent smoke, much to his and Blunk's shock.

"Looking for someone?" They turned around in surprise to see the Dark Chi Enforcers, with a group of guards, along with the real Elyon behind all of them. Finn, Ratso, and Chow brandished their respective weapons and were ready to charge.

Realizing they had to get out, Caleb quickly grabbed Blunk and leapt out the window, resulting in Blunk screaming as the young rebel tried to release the parachute. "Captain Black said there was a cord!" He exclaimed right before he found said cord and pulled it, releasing the parachute and slowing their descent as they hovered away from the castle.

* * *

_Earth – Heatherfield_

"Wow, look where we are." Hay Lin said as she, along with Jackie, Will, Cornelia, Jade, Irma, Cornelia, and Alchemy were all gathered underneath the main bridge of Heatherfield. "This is where we Guardianed-up for the first time."

"I know it was only a short time ago, but so much has happened… it honestly feels like forever." Taranee said.

"Yeah; if you told me a couple months ago that I'd be fighting evil princes, giant shapeshifters, evil wizards, magic ninjas, and floating demon heads, I would have called ya crazy." Irma commented.

"It certainly feels that way with this type of work. Believe me, I know." Jackie spoke from experience.

"Well it feels like just yesterday for me since I didn't find out about this stuff till way later." Alchemy pointed out. "So, where's Tohru?"

"He, Uncle, and Hay Lin's grandma are at the shop trying to do more research on the Oni-masks." Jade answered.

"And we really should be ready for anything since Phobos and Tarakudo have teamed up." Will said. "And we got no idea what other kinds of Shadowkhan those other masks have."

"So, let's Guardian up and get this practice going." Cornelia urged.

With nothing else needing to be said, Will took out the Heart of Kandrakar and said the magic words. **"Guardians Unite!" **Much like their first transformations; Will was engulfed in a glowing sphere of pink energy as colorful streams of elemental magic flowed from her to her other friends. A white, windy, stream of magic flowed around Hay Lin before she was engulfed in a white sphere; a stream of fire magic flowed encircled Taranee before she was also engulfed in a sphere of orange energy; a blue, water-like, stream flowed around Irma's body before she was engulfed in a sphere of bright blue energy; finally, Cornelia was encircled by a stream of green energy with leaves flowing around it before her own body was engulfed in a sphere of green energy.

However, that is when something totally unexpected happened. Another stream, this one of light purple energy, with smaller, darker, shadow-like, streams flowed from Will and began to encircle Jade's body, much to her shock and surprise.

"Wha… Uncle Jackie!" Jade cried in distress before her body was encased in a sphere of bright purple energy, much to the shock of Jackie and Alchemy.

"Jade!" Jackie tried to run and help his niece, only for a bright white flash to shine throughout the area as per the typical transformations. Once the light faded, Will and the others had assumed their Guardian forms. However, once they looked at Jackie's shocked expression, all five of them, and Alchemy, turned to see what Jackie was staring at and they all gave gasps of their own.

Jade had also undergone a sudden change. Now she was about as tall as the other girls; her attire had changed from her casual clothes to what she wore as the Queen of the Shadowkhan; from the dark purple, spiked, sleeveless, top to the long black and spikey dress at the bottom. However, her skin was still it's normal color as her hair grew out by a few inches. She also wore black and dark-blue stripped tights with a pair of black boots. But what stuck out the most were a pair of wings that grew out of her back, these wings looked identical to those that grew from the backs of the other girls of WITCH.

None however appeared more surprised than Jade as she looked all over her transformed body. "What… what the hell…?! What happened to me?!"

"Jade!" Will and the others all ran up to Jade as they seemed as surprised as she was. "What happened to you?!" Hay Lin repeated the same question Jade just said.

"Did you just transform?!" Irma exclaimed.

"Jade, you got the same wings we do!" Taranee saw the flapping wings on her back.

"You're tall… your hair's longer… you got the same kind of outfit…!" Cornelia began to list.

"Jade… are… are you… a Guardian?!" Will voiced the question that everyone else was thinking.

As Jade ran to the river to look at her reflection, Jackie was rendered completely speechless. Over a million questions were going through his mind and he probably couldn't find an answer to any of them. However, out of everyone else who was shocked, Alchemy appeared totally amazed.

"Wow! Jade's a Guardia too?! Why didn't you guys say anything?!" Alchemy exclaimed with a wide smile.

"Because… this has never happened before…" Jackie answered, still not over his surprise.

"I… no way! I can't be a Guardian! It's not possible!" Jade exclaimed in total denial.

"Well, you have the look for it." Irma said. "You even got the wings."

"I can't have the wings! I can't fly…!" However, right as she said that, her wings flapped rappildy before she shot herself into the air by accidently, resulting in her screaming as she tried to steady herself, but she was so shellshocked, she seemed unable to as she flew and spiraled through he air randomly.

Will and Hay Lin however were the first to fly up and grab her by the shoulders. "Alright Jade just calm down. Deep breaths, deep breaths." Will told her in a calm and soothing tone. This seemed able to calm Jade down as she stopped herself from hyperventilating.

"Okay, we're gonna slowly head back to the ground. Nice and slow." Hay Lin eased as she and Will helped Jade slowly hovered back to the ground. Once they made it, Jade calmed down quite a bit as she fell to her knees, still not over the shock as everyone else came to help her.

"You alright, girl?" Irma asked.

"I have no idea." Jade replied honestly. "I mean… I can't be a Guardian… can I…?"

"Actually, now that I got a good look… your outfit looks exactly like when you were the Queen of the Shadowkhan." Cornelia pointed out. "But you got the wings and the tights…"

"And your skin and eye-color are normal." Taranee also said. "Almost like a hybrid or something."

"Jackie, maybe we should talk to Uncle and the others about this." Will suggested.

"Yes, that is a good idea." Jackie agreed.

* * *

_Uncle's Rare Finds._

"AIYA!" Uncle screamed as Tohru and Yan Lin both gasped upon seeing Jade's transformed state, with Will and the others still in their respective Guardian forms, were present along with Jackie and Alchemy. "Why is Jade Shadowkhan Queen and Guardian together?!"

"We don't know, that's why we came here! Duh!" Cornelia pointed out as if it were obvious.

"Will took out the Heart to transform herself and the others, and Jade ended up being transformed with them." Jackie explained.

"Let me take a look. At both Jade and the Heart." Yan Lin stepped up as Will held out the Heart of Kandrakar and Yan Lin began to inspect it before looking all around Jade, taking notice at the wings on her back. "Jade, be honest, do you feel any different?"

"You mean aside from being totally freaked out of my mind?! No, perfectly fine." Jade said sarcastically.

"Grandma, has anything like this happened with you and your team?" Hay Lin asker her grandmother.

"No, this has never happened. Not once with my team, or any of the other previous generations of Guardians." Yan Lin explained. "There have always been five Guardians; and while various allies have assisted and fought alongside them, there has never once been a _sixth_."

"Perhaps this is the result of the Heart of Kandrakar being used to cure Jade?" Tohru wondered, getting everyone's attention. "Her appearance seems like a cross between her form as the Queen of the Shadowkhan and that of a Guardian. Maybe when the Heart absorbed the magic spell that was used to cure Jade and when it was applied to her, it may have removed the evil influence, but maybe their magics mixed together to create this new form?"

"That… actually does seem to make sense." Taranee noted.

"Sure, if you wanna get involved in all that magic-physics stuff." Irma said sarcastically.

"Perhaps Tohru is correct." Yan Lin seemed to agree. "Combining and mixing the Heart's power with that of the power inside Jade at the time must have created an Auremere attuned to her."

That seemed to confuse the group. "An Auremere?" Will asked.

"You got any idea what they're talking about?" Alchemy asked Cornelia.

"Not a clue." The Blonde replied.

"An Auremere is the source of a Guardian's power." Yan Lin explained. "Each of you has one that is tuned to your specific element through the Heart of Kandrakar." She explained to the five Guardians. "But for a sixth to be created… This has to be more than simply powers mixing together. The Heart of Kandrakar has come into contact with many forms of magic over the years, but only _five _Auremeres have existed."

As the group tried to think of an answer, Jackie however appeared to have come to some kind of conclusion. "An act of balance."

"What? Balance?" Alchemy asked.

"You got an idea, Uncle Jackie?" Hay Lin asked as Jade paid especial close attention.

"Uncle, you remember what you told me after we first defeated Shendu at his palace?" Jackie asked his Uncle, who nodded in response. "You told me how the universe seeks balance."

"Yin and Yang." Uncle confirmed. "When you defeated Shendu, it created a void that allowed the other Demon Sorcerers to fill when they tried to cross over into our realm."

"Yes, but that was for the Forces of _Darkness_." Jackie continued. "And if the universe seeks balance, wouldn't the reverse also be possible?"

"Uh Jackie, could you maybe explain in a way we can understand?" Will asked.

"After the defeat of the Demon Sorcerers, it left another void for a new evil to fill." Jackie explained. "And I believe it's safe to assume that evil is Phobos. But, where there is a force for Darkness, there is an equally strong force for _Light_, a good to match that evil. That force for good, came in the form of you girls." He gestured to the girls of WITCH.

"Don't forget you, I mean you can kick major evil butt too." Cornelia pointed out.

"Yes." Jackie said in acknowledgement before getting back to the main point. "But, the scales tipped closer toward the side of evil, once Tarakudo made his appearance, which became especially prevalent when he joined forces with Phobos."

"Phobos' own ambitions, combined with that of the nine Oni Masks would make him and Tarakudo a threat that could expand well past Meridian and even Earth." Yan Lin said.

"Exactly." Jackie said. "So, in order to balance things out again, to tip the scales back to the Forces of Light… some sort of universal force of nature must have worked through the Heart of Kandrakar to create a sixth Auremere, in order to turn Jade into a Guardian."

Most of the group looked amongst each other as what Jackie told them seemed to process enough to give them a clear enough answer.

"Yeah… I think I get it." Hay Lin said. "Two big bad guys teaming up, so we need a new _good _guy."

"Okay yeah… can someone say all that for me again in English?" Jade requested in a somewhat irritated tone.

"Things have gotten so bad with the Forces of Darkness that the universe decided to make you a Guardian to even the odds." Irma translated.

Jade seemed to understand. "Oh."

"Well, good news for us!" Alchemy stated with a grin.

"Yeah, this makes J-WITCH official!" Hay Lin exclaimed as she and even Cornelia threw their arms over Jade's shoulder.

"Welcome to the team new Guardian!" Cornelia congratulated. The others were about to join in, but Jade backed away slightly.

"Whoa, whoa, hold on a second!" Jade stopped any kind of celebration before it began. "Okay, I get the whole yin-yang universe thing, but what kind of Guardian am I? I mean you guys got all your powers. Fire, water, earth, air, Will's got heart-powers or whatever that is, but what about me? Am I shooting lighting from my finger tips? What…?!" As she thew her arms out however, she ended up shooting a sphere of black mass, which seemed to pulsate like fire as it was shot at the wall above the counter, causing an explosion and a slight burn on the wall, much to everyone's surprise.

"Whoa…" Irma and Will said at the same time.

"Aiya…" Uncle was about as surprised as everyone else.

But none were more surprised than Jade herself as she looked at her hands and began to concentrate a little bit before generating what appeared to be a black flame over her palms. "Um… what the hell is this?"

The group got a good look at the power Jade was displaying. "It looks like… black fire." Cornelia said.

"Fire can't be black, it's impossible." Taranee commented.

"And shouldn't it be hot?" Alchemy asked as she put her hand hear it, but she didn't feel the least bit of heat.

Jackie stuck the tip of his finger in before pulling it back. "It's cold. I don't know what that is, but it's not fire."

"Shadow magic." Tohru however seemed to know what it was as everyone directed their attention toward him. "Since Jade's appearance is that of a mix between a Guardian and the Queen of the Shadowkhan, I can only assume that her new powers are something similar. Each of you has your own elemental power." He spoke to the individual Guardians. "Taranee is fire, Irma is water, Cornelia is earth, Hay Lin is air, and Will is the bearer of the Heart. I believe that Jade is the Guardian of shadow."

"Is shadow even an element?" Irma asked.

"Certain myths depict shadow, or even darkness, to be an element, the counterforce to light." Jackie explained. "Depending on the myth's origin."

"Shadow powers huh…?" Jade looked to the shadow magic that continued to surge in her hand. One would think that someone like her would be totally excited about having her own magic powers. But if that were the case, why did Jade look so nervous? Something that didn't go unnoticed by Jackie and Will.

Everyone's thoughts were halted when the shop door suddenly opened as they all turned around to see Caleb and Blunk running into the shop. "Guys! Guys!" Caleb exclaimed. "We got a…" However, Caleb gasped the second he saw Jade's transformed appearance. "What the the..!?" He quickly took a combat stance. "Everyone, get back! Jade's turning into the Queen of the Shadowkhan again!"

However, Cornelia quickly ran to grab him by the shoulders. "Take it easy, rebel-boy. Jade's just fine. In fact, she's a Guardian now."

Caleb's eyes were so wide they were almost dinner plates as he stared at Jade almost as if she grew a second head. "She's a Guardian?! But I thought it was only the five of you!"

"Please do not make us repeat all this!" Jade exclaimed as she rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I'm a Guardian now, deal with it!"

"Alright, calm down." Jackie put a hand on his niece's shoulder as he spoke to the young rebel. "Caleb, we can explain all this. But before we do, we need you to tell us what the problem _you_ are having is."

Caleb decided to put his questions away as the circumstances surrounding Elyon took priority. "Alright. So Blunk and I were at the castle, trying to get Elyon. But when I tried to grab her, she just vanished into thin air!"

That got everyone's attention as even Blunk spoke in agreement. "Girl there. Then girl not there!" Blunk waved his arms for emphasis.

"Maybe some kind of magic hologram? Something Wong could cook up?" Will asked as she spared a glance at Uncle, hoping for confirmation, but he himself seemed a bit perplexed.

"Hmm. Did Elyon vanish in _dark _smoke?" Uncle asked.

"No… it was bright." Caleb answered.

"Then it is not the work of Daolon Wong, but Elyon herself." Uncle stated.

"You mean like those astral drop things you said we could do?" Taranee asked.

"Something similar." Yan Lin responded. "Elyon is from Meridian, and now that she is in her birthplace, and fully aware of her status as the princess, her powers are growing with each day she spends there. Under the guidance of Phobos or even Daolon Wong, she will gain extraordinary powers."

"But why a magic hologram?" Alchemy asked.

"Maybe to make things more difficult for us." Tohru assumed. "Phobos and the others know were trying to get to Elyon, so they are making decoys to throw us off. Perhaps the one Caleb and Blunk saw was a test-run of sorts, to see how effective it could be."

"It really did look just like her." Caleb recalled.

"So, they know it works." Jackie said gravely. "Meaning, they could use this to set up traps of their own."

* * *

_Meridian_

Daolon Wong approached the throne of Phobos as the dark prince himself sat upon it, with Cedric, in his humanoid snake form, on his right, along with Tarakudo who hovered on Phobos' left.

"Elyon's decoy worked to perfection." Wong reported. However, before the conversation could continue, they heard the gates opening as Cedric quickly turned back into his human appearance, Tarakudo vanished into the wall, and Phobos threw up the illusion to cover his dark throne room and make it look like a bright and happy one just as Elyon walked in with Finn, Ratso, and Chow right behind her.

"You guys were right; they'll never stop coming for me!" Elyon said. "What can I do?"

"We'll need an army." Phobos answered as he stood up to approach his younger sister.

"Don't you already have one?" She asked her brother.

"Not of guards. Of _you_." Phobos replied as he ruffled her hair slightly.

"Just do as I taught you, your majesty." Daolon Wong instructed the princess. "Project an image of yourself, only this time, several at once."

"Alright." Elyon began to concentrate on her powers. Already a surge of white energy surrounded her body as she began to create a series of duplicates of herself; much to the surprise of the Dark Chi Enforcers, and the pleasure of Phobos, Wong, and Cedric. By the time it was done, there were more than a hundred identical copies of Elyon occupying the throne room.

"Whoa…" Finn breathed in awe as his friends looked just as surprised before he smirked. "She'd kill it in Vegas."

"How many do you think there are?" Ratso asked.

"One, two, three, four…" Chow began to count. "Eight… nine…"

"Did you count that one?" Ratso asked.

"I think so." Chow muttered. "Hey, will you all stop moving around!?" He exclaimed to all the copies. "It's so frustrating! I think I counted one of you twice!"

"I honestly lost track of the real one." Finn confessed.

'_Idiots.' _Phobos resisted the urge to blast all three of them for their stupidity alone.

* * *

Back on Earth; Jade was in her own room, trying to get a new pair of clothes on as when she and the other Guardian girls transformed back to normal, Jade had actually grown significantly; now she was on equal height with the other girls. Unfortunately, most of her clothes were all at her old size, so it was difficult finding something to wear that could actually fit her. Of course, that wasn't the only thing on her mind.

She was a Guardian now, an actual and official Guardian of the Veil just like Will and the others. It was crazy! What was even more crazy was that she didn't seem all that excited over it. If this had happened about a month ago, when they first started these adventures with the WITCH crew, saying Jade would have been ecstatic about it would have been an understatement. So, why did she seem so… _reluctant_, now? Was it because she had the same kind of powers as the Queen of the Shadowkhan?

There was a knock on the door when she heard her uncle's voice. "Jade, can we come in?" Jackie asked.

"Eh… not really." Jade quickly said. "I don't really have any clothes on, and none of the stuff I have will fit."

"Sorry, we'll buy you some new clothes later." Jackie said from the other side of the door, and he wasn't alone.

"Hey, we're about to head out to Meridian." Will said as she was also with Jackie. "You coming?"

Jade hesitated for a moment before answering. "Actually, why don't you go without me?"

The looks of shock and surprise on the faces of Jackie and Will could not be described with mere words. Did they just hear right?! Did Jade really just say she _didn't _want to go on a magical adventure?!

* * *

Meanwhile; Caleb, Cornelia, Irma, Taranee, Hay Lin, Blunk, and Alchemy waited for the rest of their group underneath the bridge, but they'd been waiting for some time and were starting to become impatient.

"Where is everyone?" Taranee asked. "Without Will we can't transform."

Hay Lin felt her phone vibrate as she took it out to look at it. "Just got a text; they're having some problems with Jade so it might be a while."

"Well I hope she's okay." Alchemy said.

"Typical girls." Caleb said in annoyance. "Late, late, late."

That really seemed to annoy the group. "Excuse me! _We're _here!" Cornelia pointed out, referring to herself and her friends.

"And we're _outta _here." Caleb stated as he appeared to have waited long enough and began to walk away. "Come on Blunk, warm up your portal-sniffer."

Blunk took out the sucker he had in his mouth, which was covered in his slobber and handed it to Irma much to her disgust. "Keep warm for Blunk?" He asked before catching up to Caleb.

"There isn't an 'ew' loud enough." Irma cringed in disgust before throwing it away.

* * *

_Meridian_

After entering his home realm, Caleb and Blunk attempted to disguise themselves with some hooded cloaks as they tried to search for Elyon themselves through the local town.

"What we do when we find Elyon?" Blunk asked.

"First we make sure she's real." Caleb replied. "With this." He showed a frisbee he got from a dumpster on Earth.

The second he saw it, Blunk jumped up to the frisbee and grabbed it with his mouth like a dog. "Blunk fetch!"

Caleb was quick to take it back, however. "You don't even make a cute pet." He said before putting it away. "We throw it at Elyon, okay? If it flies right through her, she's a ghost."

"Or real bad catch." Blunk said as the pair turned the corner, where they appeared to find Elyon at a stand. Caleb was ready to throw the frisbee, but Blunk pulled on his coat to get his attention, having noticed something else. "Caleb, what we throw at her?" He gestured to another Elyon that appeared to be picking some flowers near the field.

"Uh oh…" Caleb grimaced, realizing he didn't think this plan through.

"Uh oh, uh oh, uh, oh!" Blunk pointed to a _third _Elyon that walked into a nearby forest just outside of town.

"You check out that one." Caleb told Blunk as he pointed to the one that was still in town while Caleb himself ran to the forest to check out the Elyon that continued to move away from the town.

Caleb ran and followed the Elyon into the forest, once he was close enough, he threw the frisbee at her, only for an invisible telekinetic force to block it and send it flying.

"What the….?!" Caleb exclaimed as the Elyon turned around to give him an evil grin before the smoke faded away to reveal the Lord of the Oni himself as he hovered closer to the young rebel.

"So, boy wants to play fetch, does he?"

"Tarakudo!" Caleb shouted, but before he could even attack, Tarakudo shot another psychic blast to send Caleb crashing hard into a tree, causing him to drop the bag of onions he prepared just in case..

"Nice trick, huh?" Tarakudo mused. "Turns out little Elyon is quite gifted. All I have to do is hide in one of those little lookalikes to get the drop on any do-gooders with funny ideas." Caleb tried to reach for the onions, only for Tarakudo to telekinetically lift then into the air. "Sorry, no vegetables for you, young man." He threw them away before picking up the struggling Caleb in his psychic grip.

"Put me down, you… you… floating head thing…!"

"If I had a nickel for every time, I'd be called that…" Tarakudo replied before flying toward the castle, while also carrying Caleb with him, which went completely unnoticed by Blunk

* * *

Back on Earth; Cornelia, Alchemy, Irma, Taranee, and Hay Lin continued to wait for their friends. Fortunately, they didn't appear to wait so long as Jackie's van pulled up with Will, Uncle, Tohru, and a reluctant Jade, stepping out. Jade also appeared to be wearing some new clothes that Will had to let her borrow.

"What took you guys so long?" Cornelia questioned. "We ran out of gossip! We had to talk about… schoolwork." She shivered at that last comment.

"Hey, it's not my fault my clothes don't fit me anymore!" Jade quickly exclaimed.

"We had to get some new clothes for Jade to wear before she could come. We'll buy her something else later." Jackie quickly explained. Though he left out the part where Jade didn't want to come at first. However, Will and Jackie, and even Tohru, were able to convince her to join them to properly test her new powers as a Guardian, but not before receiving a dope-slap from Uncle for taking too long to decide.

"Where is Caleb?" Tohru asked.

"Went off to Meridian." Irma said before Uncle delivered a dope-slap to her forehead. "Ow!"

"Why would you let Rebel Boy go to Meridian alone?!" Uncle exclaimed. "Caleb is reckless! Recklessness makes easy to capture! Have you not been paying attention?!"

"Well what were we supposed to do? Chain him to a wall?" Taranee questioned.

"Guys, guys, stop!" Hay Lin got in the middle to stop everyone from arguing. "Look we're all here now, let's just go."

Will nodded in agreement as she took out the Heart of Kandrakar. The second Jade saw it, she had a reluctant look on her face as Will said the magic words once again. **"Guardians Unite"**

* * *

The six Guardians hovered close to the ground, just underneath the canopy of the forest they were trekking, to avoid being seen as Jackie, Tohru, Uncle, and Alchemy stuck closer to the ground. The group came to a stop just before the forest ended right at the edge of the town as the Guardian girls set down.

"Hey, I see her!" Alchemy pointed to what appeared to be Elyon at a food table. Cornelia was about to call out to her, but Jade stopped her.

"Don't bother, that's not her."

That caught everyone's attention. "Jade?" Jackie asked.

"How can you tell?" Taranee asked.

"She doesn't have a shadow." Jade replied.

"Wait… you can see her shadow from here?" Will asked.

"No, I can sense it." Jade tried to explain as best she could. "It's hard to put into words but… I can sense the shadows of people that I look at, but I can't sense anything from her."

"All living things cast shadows." Uncle began to explain himself. "Shadows contain half our lifeforce, our chi. If something does not cast a shadow, it has no chi, and is not truly alive."

That actually sent a shiver down most of their spines. "Kinda Dracula-ish." Cornelia commented.

"What about that one by the flowers?" Hay Lin asked, pointing to the Elyon that was currently picking the flowers. All Jade needed to do was glance in its direction.

"Nope, fake." She confirmed, sensing no shadow at all.

"You know, add some bleepy-noises, and this would be a really cool video game." Hay Lin commented.

"There's another one." Will pointed to another Elyon that stood in front of Blunk as he tried to get its attention.

Jade was about to confirm it, but Irma beat her to it. "Nah, she's talking to Blunk like she _knows _him. Plus, she's not holding her nose."

"They could have these fake-Elyons all over town." Jackie stated. "And I believe that every single one of them could be a trap."

"Which means Caleb was probably captured." Tohru said.

"Real Elyon is likely in castle." Uncle pointed to the castle in the distance. "Where Phobos can watch her closely. She is too important to his plans to let her out his sight."

"Hang on, let me check." Hay Lin began to listen to the air, focusing on the castle as she tried to isolate the soundwaves that were carried from castle by the air. She focused hard enough that she was actually able to isolate the soundwave she recognized as their friend.

"_Phobos?" _

"_Something troubling you?" _She heard Phobos' voice as well as she continued to listen to their conversation.

"_Well, no… it's just… I left my old sketchbook on Earth and it was pretty important to me. I wish I had it here."_

"_Then I shall make arrangements to retrieve it. But first, I have something that I wish to show you."_

"Got her." Hay Lin told everyone. "She's definitely at the castle."

"Alright." Jackie understood as he began to relay instructions. "Alchemy, go get Blunk and wait for us by the portal. Everyone else, we're going to that castle."

* * *

Phobos led his sister into the main hallway of his castle where Cedric and Wong were present, the former pouring some tea, while the Dark Chi Enforcers held a familiar individual by his arms.

"For your pleasure, Princess Elyon." Cedric presented to the girl. "A cup of tea, and a rebel commander." The Dark Chi Enforcers threw Caleb to the ground, his hands bound by dark magic behind his back as a collar of the same substance encircled around his throat.

"Caleb…" Elyon was surprised to see him, but when he tried to speak, the only thing that came from his mouth were a series of gargles. "What's wrong? Why can't he talk?"

"I have placed a spell that will prevent him from speaking any of his lies and deceit." Wong explained. "For you see, this young man was the one who gave your friends the Heart of Kandrakar."

"What?!" Elyon exclaimed before she glared at the struggling Caleb. "You brainwashed my friends?! I can't believe this! To think I actually had a crush on you!"

"I will see to it that he receives the proper punishment, dear sister." Phobos assured as Caleb still tried to speak, but Daolon Wong's spell prevented him from doing so.

"You think he has something do with our parents' murder?" Elyon asked her brother.

"Unlikely, he is far too young to have committed the deed." Phobos replied. "However, that isn't to say he doesn't know who did it. For all we know, the real killer could be hiding within the Rebellion, using those lies and false rumors to justify their cause as they try to seize the throne for themselves."

"They killed my parents, and brainwashed my friends?" Elyon questioned before glaring at Caleb once more. "Caleb, I swear that If you really had anything to do with that… you _will _pay!"

However, the doors suddenly opened as a guard quickly came running in to alert the group. "The Guardians and their allies are attacking!"

"Escort my sister to safety, we will deal with this!" Phobos ordered the Enforcers.

"No problem, Big P." Finn said as he and his friends began to escort Elyon away.

"Your highness, there's more!" The guard told Phobos as Elyon overheard it as well. "There's another one! _Six _Guardians!"

"What?!" Phobos exclaimed in shock as even Wong and Cedric were utterly surprised.

"Wait… what did he say? Six of them?" Elyon asked in confusion as the Enforcers tried to urge her along.

"Uh… best let your brother handle this." Ratso said.

"Yeah, you don't wanna get caught in the middle of all that." Chow also said as they escorted her to safety.

* * *

Outside; Jackie, Tohru, and the six Guardians were practically in a warzone as they threw everything, they had to beat back the guards.

Tohru ran and charged into a group of soldiers as he swapped his massive arms to beat them all back. Hay Lin provided cover for the big man as she created a series of air-disks in her hands, which she threw at the nearest group of guards to slice their weapons, disarming them and leaving them vulnerable for Tohru to swipe and punch them down with his superior strength.

Taranee thew a series of fireballs to blast away a group of guards, with Irma sending several more crashing along the ground by blasting a stream of water at them. Cornelia also shook up the ground with her own powers to knock a group of guards down before growing several root-tendrils from the ground to ensnare them.

Jackie ducked underneath the swing from one guard's sword before grabbing him by the shoulder and flipping him over himself to knock down two more trying to charge him from behind. Three more guards tried to rush him with axes and swords, but Jackie picked up a spear from a downed guard and spun it like a master staff-wielder before making a confident smile and a hand gesture to bring it on. He then used his new weapon to block the guards' weapon strikes before knocking them down by sweeping the non-lethal end of the spear at their legs.

Will and Jade came back-to-back, as they appeared surrounded by guards. They exchanged glances and nods just as the guards charged them. Both girls locked their arms together before Jade bent her back to bring Will's body up as she spun around, kicking her feet out to knock back all the guards in one single motion. Though Jade was still hesitant about using her new shadow powers, she still knew Kung Fu.

Phobos, Daolon Wong, and Cedric, watched this one-sided fight play out as Tarakudo emerged from the wall next to them. "Well, this is a surprise." The Oni King noted upon seeing the group of heroes. "I thought there were only _five _Guardians."

"How is this possible?!" Cedric questioned.

Daolon Wong got a good look at the newest Guardian. "That girl… she's the Queen of the Shadowkhan!"

"So, she's a Gaudian now?!" Phobos exclaimed before glaring up at the floating demon head. "Tarakudo, what is the meaning of this?!"

"Let's find out, shall we?" Tarakudo suggested as he flew down to the group as they had just finished dealing with the guards outside.

However, before the heroes could celebrate, Tohru felt a chill down his spine. "Uh oh…"

At this point, everyone else knew what Tohru's shivering meant. "Let me guess: the willies?" Irma gulped.

Suddenly the group was hit with a powerful psychic blast from Tarakudo himself as he roared and shot down at all of them; and he was not the only one as Cedric, having already transformed, slithered down as well with Phobos and Daolon Wong shooting their respective magic blasts at the heroes.

* * *

Back inside, Caleb struggled in his magic bonds, but they didn't to budge. He couldn't even call the others for help as the spell still remained around his throat. However, his attention was caught by Uncle, who had climbed over the window now that everyone else appeared to have left.

Uncle said nothing as he brought out his blowfish to zap some chi-magic at Caleb's bonds, freeing not only his hands, but also removing the spell around his throat and allowing him to speak again.

"Thanks." Caleb breathed a sigh of relief, only to be dope-slapped in the forehead by the elderly Chi-Wizard. "Ow!"

"What was Rebel Boy thinking?!" Uncle exclaimed. "Too dangerous to go on your own! No way of knowing which Elyon was real and fake!"

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry!" Caleb quickly apologized before picking up his downed weapons, which included his sheathed katana. "Now come on, they need our help!"

* * *

Cedric roared as he charged Tohru, grappling with the large sumo as they each pitted their own strength against the other. As usual, both of them seemed evenly matched. However, when Taranee tried to fly in and blast Cedric from behind, Cedric actually lifted Tohru's body and turned around, so that the fireball could hit Tohru in the back, causing him to grunt in pain.

"Oh no!" Taranee covered her mouth in shock, realizing she just hit her friend. With Tohru distracted for a minute, Cedric grabbed and lifted him up to throw at Taranee and send them crashing into a nearby wall.

Cornelia tried to shake the ground that Daolon Wong stood on while also trying to ensnare him in a series of root-tendrils; but Wong only needed to blast the roots with his magic to disintegrate him before blasting Cornelia back with a surge of dark magic from his scepter. Irma and Hay Lin tried to combine their powers in an attempt to overpower Daolon Wong with a surging blast of water and wind, but Daolon Wong had already shielded himself with a powerful dome of dark magic before using a spell to sink the two girls into the ground like quicksand.

Daolon Wong gave an amused chuckle. "Your skills have indeed improved. But your crude use of elemental magic is no use to my precise skills." He was then hit in the back by a blast of green magic that sent him rolling across the ground.

"Then perhaps you'd like a piece of Uncle instead." Uncle challenged as Cornelia used her earth-powers to free Irma and Hay Lin from their predicament. "Help Tohru and Taranee. Uncle will deal with Daolon Wong."

"He's all yours!" Irma stated as the three Guardians flew towards Taranee and Tohru, who were still dealing with Cedric. Wong got back up to glare at Uncle, who glared back as they each shot a beam of their respective chi-magics to clash against each other once more.

Jackie clashed his staff against Phobos' sword as the dark prince glared at his foe. "You have a rather bad habit of interring, Chan."

"It's what I do." Jackie said before sweeping his feet to knock Phobos down, but he quickly blasted a point-blank magic attack to knock Jackie back, breaking the staff in half as Phobos quickly got up to try and bring his sword down on him, only for it to be blocked by a katana, curtsey of Caleb.

"I don't think so!" The rebel leader stated as he swung his katana at Phobos, forcing him to block and parry with his own sword, leaving him open for Jackie to get back and deliver a flying kick to send Phobos skidding across the ground.

Jade gazed up in clear feat the sight of Tarakudo who hovered over her. "This day is full of surprises." He gazed down at Jade. "You may not seem like it, but you certainly look the part, Queen of the Shadowkhan." He smirked evilly. "Can I assume this means you're returning to the Forces of Darkness?"

"Hell no!" Will exclaimed as she flew in defense of her friend. "You're not getting your hooks sinked into her again!" She was about to fly and attack Tarakudo, but the Oni King used his psychic powers to blast Will to the nearest wall and pin her there.

"Will!" Jade exclaimed as she saw her friend trapped.

"If I recall, you were the one who turned her back to human." Tarakudo narrowed his eyes at Will.

"Because she's not your little plaything, you got that!" Will glared, only to be pressed harder into the wall by Tarakudo's powers.

"Perhaps she might be more willing to cross over, if she no longer has any friends on the side of light." Tarakudo was ready to launch a powerful psychic blast to crush Will completely.

"NO!" Jade exclaimed as she quickly flew in front of Will, holding her hands out to try and take the attack herself. However, once her hands were thrown out, a large wall of shadow-magic appeared in front of both of them that not only blocked the attack, but even absorbed it so that no harm could be done to either girls.

This act had caught Tarakudo completely off-guard, which was a first for even him. "What?"

Even Jade and Will looked in surprise as the former looked toward her hands and the wall of shadows that she had just created before it vanished. However, before anyone could do anything else, a horn was sounded throughout the castle grounds as several more guards and Lurdens attempted to enter the courtyard.

"It's time to go!" Jackie stated as he, Caleb, Tohru, Uncle, and the other Guardians tried to regroup and attempt to leave.

"What about Elyon?!" Cornelia questioned.

"I'm sorry Cornelia, we'll come back for her. I promise." Jackie assured just as enemy reinforcements had entered the courtyard.

Coming to a reluctant acceptance, Cornelia grabbed Jackie and flew into the air as Hay Lin did the same for Uncle, Taranee and Irma grabbing onto Tohru, and Will grabbing onto Caleb as they flew away from the castle along with Jade and out of range of the archers among the enemy hordes.

As they flew away, Tarakudo looked with interest as he saw Jade fly away, appearing to be pondering just what kind of power she wielded.

"Tarakudo!" Phobos exclaimed, getting his attention as the dark prince marched toward him. "Explain! Now!"

"I'm not entirely sure, but if I were to take a guess; I'd say when the red-haired girl used the Heart of Kandrakar to try and cure the Queen, she might have unknowingly created a new power that enables the young lady to turn into a new type of Guardian." Tarakudo assumed. "At least that's my theory."

"So, to be clear, your attempts to garden a new ally for us, have only succeeded in making our enemies stronger?!" Phobos questioned, clearly angry over this new development.

"A miscalculation." Tarakudo spoke calmly. "One I doubt that nobody could see coming. Even the girl herself seemed a little confused."

"When we joined forces, I had hopped you would provide me with the aid necessary to crush our enemies!" The angered Phobos exclaimed. "But it seems I was mistaken!" He drew his sword from thin air as he pointed at Tarakudo. "Give me one reason why I should allow this so-called partnership to continue…!"

Suddenly, Phobos was sent flying toward the castle wall and slammed against it, via Tarakudo's psychic power that kept him pinned. "As I said, it was a miscalculation." Tarakudo spoke in a seemingly calm tone of voice. "I understand your frustrations, but perhaps it would be more effective to point them in a more productive direction. I consider myself a patient demon, but one thing I will _not _tolerate is in-fighting among my own side! Rest assured, I have every intention of assisting you, should you and your minions assist me in finding my masks. But, if you dare take that sort of tone to me again, or even threaten me… I promise… I will make you sink into the deepest depths of darkness so horrible; it makes that Abyss of Shadows in your basement seem like a playground by comparison! Am I understood?"

For one the few times in his life, Phobos began to exhibit genuine fear. Though he was quick to try and mask it, Tarakudo could clearly see it in his eyes, yet allowed the dark prince to respond.

"Clearly." Phobos assured.

"Good." Tarakudo accepted as he let go and allowed Phobos to get back to the ground on his feet.

* * *

_Earth _

Upon returning to Heatherfield, night had fallen as the group sat around a bench at the park, along with Alchemy and Blunk, as they tried to think about their next move. During which, Caleb was telling them what he had learned from Elyon.

"She thinks we've been brainwashed?" Cornelia questioned.

"That's right." Caleb confirmed. "She thinks that I gave you the Heart of Kandrakar to control you, and that someone in the Rebellion killed her parents. Can you actually believe that?!"

"Believe it or not, it did seem enough to convince Elyon." Taranee pointed out.

"Phobos and the others must have told Elyon this so that she wouldn't trust us, even if we did have the chance to talk to her." Jackie said.

"Even if we do go back to Meridian, or even break into Phobos' castle, it's almost impossible for us to tell whether it's a fake or the real one." Tohru added.

"Jade could tell the difference." Will pointed out. "That whole Shadow-Sense thing."

"Doesn't mean I know where the real one is." Jade replied. "Heck, she might not even be int eh Castle anymore. Phobos and Company could have moved her somewhere else and we don't even know where!"

"Jade is correct." Uncle agreed. "We have broken into castle before. Phobos is evil, yes. But stupid? No. Castle may no longer be safe place for Elyon. Forces of Darkness could have made new hiding space for her."

As the group tried to think what they should do, an idea came to Hay Lin. "So, anybody know anything about a missing sketch book?"

"No, but you win the random-question-of-the-day award." Irma replied.

"I overheard Elyon talking to Phobos about wanting it." Hay Lin said.

This caused Cornelia and Alchemy to gasp in realization. "Her favorite sketchbook!" They both exclaimed at the same time. "She got that for her from Cornelia on her eighth birthday!"

"If it's still here on Earth, we can use it as bait." Caleb said. "Maybe even get Elyon back here long enough to talk to her."

"After that full-scale assault we did on Phobos' castle? I doubt he's gonna let her anywhere out of his sight." Jade pointed out.

"But maybe we can use her sketchbook to make a locator spell, one that can lead us to the _real _Elyon." Tohru proposed.

"That could work." Taranee said.

"Section 13 has a surveillance van parked outside Elyon's old home, just in case she ever came back, or if Phobos ever sent someone there." Jackie said. "They should be able to let us inside without a problem."

"Do not just stand there!" Uncle said to everyone. "Get cracking!"

* * *

In little time, the heroes had made it inside the house and had spotted Elyon's room. Cornelia had opened the door, but before the group could walk inside however, Uncle stopped them.

"Uncle?" Jackie looked to him with concern, as well as everyone else. Uncle said nothing as he pulled out his blowfish and shot into the room, with a single chi-blast hitting the wall before it revealed a dark blue magic barrier that surrounded the walls, ceiling, floor, and everything else in the room.

"Dark magic." Uncle identified. "Daolon Wong must have cast a spell over Elyon's room some time ago, to prevent us from using anything of hers to create chi-spell."

"Do you think we'll be able to create a counter-spell, Sensei?"

"Uncle have ingredients back at shop." Uncle explained. "Jackie, Tohru, Caleb, Blunk, come with me to shop. Girls, search room for sketchbook."

"Wait, why I do have to go and make a spell?" Caleb questioned. "I should stay here and help… Ow!" He felt a familiar slap on his forehead.

"Boys not search in _girl's _room!" Uncle chastised. "Is Rebel Boy a pervert?! No? Then do not enter girl's bedroom!"

Pretty much all the girls snickered in amusement as even Blunk chuckled. "Oh, Caleb naughty boy."

Caleb however looked completely mortified. "What?! I'm not a pervert! We're not looking through her clothes! Just…!"

Jackie stopped his rant by putting a hand on his shoulder. "Let's just head back to the shop and work on the spell, I'm certain the girls can handle this." He then looked to the seven girls. "But, if something comes up, don't hesitate to call."

"You got it." Will nodded.

"Just make sure this guy doesn't go into _my _room." Jade joked, referring to Caleb, resulting in the other girls laughing as Caleb grumbled while he and Blunk followed Jackie, Uncle, and Tohru back downstairs and out of the house.

Once they were gone, the girls wasted no time in searching Elyon's room. Though the spell Daolon Wong had casted prevent any sort of chi-spell from being used on any object in the room, it still seemed to allow them to at least touch everything else physically. Cornelia and Alchemy looked inside Elyon's closer, Hay Lin and Jade searched under the bed, Irma looked around her desk, while Will and Taranee searched her two separate dressers. But so far, they have come up empty.

"Not under here." Will said.

"Nothing." Cornelia also said. "Except for the shoes she borrowed last year."

"If this sketchbook is pretty important, you'd think it be somewhere she can easily get it." Jade commented.

Hay Lin's phone then began to ring. "It's Dad. We're supposed to be having that fake-sleep over at home." She answered her phone. "Coming, Dad! We're just… leaving the mall now." She hung up.

"So, that's it? We just leave?" Alchemy asked.

"Jackie and the others are working on that counter-spell, remember?" Taranee asked.

"But what if the bad guys show up before they have that spell ready?" Alchemy asked.

Will took a glance at Jade before an idea came to her. "Tell you guys what, Jade and I can stay here and keep looking."

"We will?" Jade asked in surprise.

"Yes, we will." Will stated more firmly as she put a hand on her shoulder. "If we find it, we'll call you guys."

The others seemed to accept that. "Alright, see ya guys." Irma waved as the girls began to leave before Cornelia showed them a stuffed kangaroo toy.

"If you guys get lonely, the kangaroo talks." Cornelia pulled on the string.

"_G'day, mate. My name's Joey."_

Right as the girls all left, Jade gave a sigh. "Why do I get the feeling you wanna talk about something?" She asked as she sat on the bed.

"Jade, what's going on with you?" Will asked as she sat down next to her. "I'd thought you'd be super excited about having your own magical powers now, considering you keep 'borrowing' the Talismans from Section 13 all the time. Now you just seem so… so… not excited. That's not like you."

"Yeah, you'd think." Jade began. "Honestly, if I had like maybe lightning powers or something, I'd actually be a little excited. It's just…"

"it's because it's so much like the Queen of the Shadowkhan thing, right?" Will seemed to figure it out.

Seeing no point in denying it, Jade only hung her head. "Yeah."

"Look, you might have the same clothes and all, but so far as I've seen, you're still the same Jade." Will told her.

"Am I?" Jade questioned, her fears becoming evident. "I don't even know anymore. I became the Queen of the Shadowkhan _twice, _and now I got the same kind of powers as a so-called Guardian!? You know, the more I thought about it, the more I realized I just got this bad streak in me. I mean, how many times as Jackie told me to stay back where it's safe, and I just ignore him and end up right there in the danger zone. Heck, some of those problems are even _my_ fault, all because I just want part of the action! Yeah, maybe I do help but… is that why I'm even doing it? Am I helping because it's the right thing? Or am I just looking for a thrill? Am I… am I really just selfish? And maybe that Queen of the Shadowkhan is really who I am deep inside? Am I just… just a bad person?"

"No, you are not!" Will took her friend by the shoulders and looked her right in the eye. "Jade, you are _not _a bad person! I mean, yeah, you're not exactly perfect, you might be reckless and even make a few mistakes. But it all comes from a good place: you just want to help us. And even if it's something silly, like trying to make yourself taller with magic, you're not actually trying to hurt people. You want to help, in your own mischievous way."

Jade looked at Will with shaky eyes as the redhead pulled out the Heart of Kandrakar and showed it to her friend. "Look, I'm not exactly an expert on this cosmic-Yin-and-Yang thing, but everyone is saying how the Heart is good, and the Guardians are a force for good. And now, you're a Guardian too. Yeah, your powers might be… different than the others, but that could just be a coincidence because you were brainwashed before or something. Look, the point is, for all your flaws, you are a good person. So good, that the freaking universe gave you your own magic powers. And you're not alone in this, you got both your Uncles, you got Tohru, you got the other girls, and you got me. You and Jackie helped me get used to all this magic stuff, so I'm gonna be here to help you every step of the way. Because that is what best friends do." She finished with a smile.

Jade had never felt so moved before in her life. Despite all the concerns and fear she had for her new power, Will had just told her that she is a good person and she would never let her feel alone in this world. This was enough for Jade to smile as she tried to push back the tears she had in her eyes. "Thanks, Will."

"Anytime." Will said before they shared a hug.

However, the tender moment was brought to a halt as the Heart of Kandrakar suddenly began to glow brighter. "Uh… Will…?" Jade looked toward her with concern.

"That's not me." She replied.

They both turned to see the closet beginning to shake before the doors burst open to reveal an active portal. Acting quickly; Will and Jade ducked and rolled underneath the bed to avoid being seen as the Dark Chi Enforcers stepped out of the portal and into the room.

"Well we're here." Chow said. "What are we looking for again?"

"The kid's sketchbook. It's gotta be here somewhere." Finn said as they began to fan out and search for it.

"Hey, why didn't Elyon come with us?" Chow asked. "Ain't it her book?"

"Phobos is already in enough of a bad mood, you wanna make him even more mad?" Finn questioned as he searched in her desk. However, he noticed an uncertain look on Ratso's face as he wasn't searching. "What's up?"

"Uh… this is kinda awkward." Ratso confessed. "We're looking through a little girl's things… We might be bad guys, but we're not pervs."

Chow shivered. "Yeah, tell me about it. In fact, I'm not even gonna do this." He stopped searching. "Why not have Phobos and his pals look for it themselves?"

Even Finn was in agreement. "You know what? You guys are right. I don't care if they zap us, we're not pedophiles."

"Glad to know you guys have such high standards."

"Gee thanks." Ratso replied before their eyes all widened, realizing who's voice they just heard. Suddenly a bright light shined out from underneath the bed before Will and Jade, both in their respective Guardian forms, appeared before the Enforcers.

"Since you guys don't wanna be here, why don't we show you the door?" Jade suggested as she delivered a roundhouse to Ratso's face to send him crashing into the dressers.

Finn and Chow immediately pulled out their respective weapons as they went on the offensive. Chow swung his staff at Will, who backed toward Elyon's desk before using her enhanced strength to pull off the top from it and use it like a makeshift shield to block Chow's staff, while Jade was on the defensive from the slashes of Finn's bladed weapon. Jade tripped backwards as she backed into an ottoman but acted quickly as she kicked with both her feet at the ottoman to trip Finn up and knock him onto the ground.

However, Ratso quickly got back on his feet and pulled out his hammer to slam it onto the ground, shaking up the entire room as Will and Jade were sent crashing out the window and outside.

"Dude, you just trashed Elyon's room!" Finn told his friend as Ratso winced at the sight of the damage he just did.

"Oh… sorry." Ratso looked down before accidentally stepping onto the stuffed Kangaroo.

"_G'day mate, my name's Joey."_

However, once they heard the kangaroo toy, they looked down to see something sticking out of its pouch. Chow quickly picked it up. "Hey, it's a sketchbook. We found it!"

"Thanks! We'll take it!" Will said as she and Jade had flown back up to try and grab the sketchbook, but Chow kept his grip firm as Ratso and Finn tried to help him in pulling it. The two Guardians and three Dark Chi Enforcers were locked in a game of tug-of-war for the sketchbook, but it lasted only a few seconds before something tore from it, causing the two girls to go flying back as the Enforcers had the sketchbook.

"Come on, let's get out of here!" Finn stated as they ran back into the portal.

"Call Jackie?" Jade asked as she helped Will to her feet.

"Call Jackie." Will confirmed as she pulled out her cellphone.

* * *

The Dark Hand trio had given the sketchbook to Phobos as they met with him in the bunker where Elyon was currently staying.

"The Guardians were there?! You certain!?" Phobos questioned.

"Two of them, but yeah." Chow nodded.

"And hey, next time you wanna search through your sister's stuff, do it yourself!" Finn stated.

"Yeah, we ain't pedophiles!" Chow also stated.

"You should apologize to us." Ratso also said

However, this only seemed to irritate Phobos even more "You three will guard these tunnels for your lives, or I will _obliterate _you! You'll wish you were facing Chan and the Guardians again once I'm done with you!"

"Apology accepted!" Ratso quickly said as he and his friends backed away in slight fear.

"Works for me!" Finn also said.

"Hmm, mmm." Chow nodded.

* * *

Putting on a happier demeanor, Phobos entered his sister's personal bunker deep inside. "Elyon, I brought you something." He walked up to her and presented her the object in his hand.

"Oh wow! My sketchbook! Thank you!" Elyon smiled as she gave her brother a grateful embrace before pulling away to look at some of the drawings she had already done so far. But her smile faded in confusion once she noticed that one of her drawings was torn in half.

* * *

Will and Jade had presented the other half of the paper to the other girls, the rest of the Chan Clan, Caleb and Blunk, the Passling helping himself to a half-eaten candy bar that fell out of the kangaroo toy.

"This is Elyon's sketchbook?" Caleb questioned skeptically. "Half a picture of a horse?"

"Hey, it was all we could get!" Jade protested. "You try fighting off three super-powered Dark Chi dudes in a tight space!"

"And it's not a horse, I think it's a face." Will said.

"Or a map of Spain." Cornelia also guessed.

"I'm sure they did the best you could." Jackie assured. "And even if it's only half a picture, we can still use it. Right?" He asked his Uncle.

"Yes." Uncle confirmed. "Uncle has prepared both counter-spell and locator spell. Tohru, assist." He instructed his apprentice as he took the picture himself.

"Yes, sensei." Tohru nodded as the master-student duo sat in the room with the picture laid out in-between of them. Uncle held out a blowfish while Tohru took out a dried lizard as they both pointed to the half-sheet of paper and began to chant simultaneously.

"_Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao." _As they chanted, beams of green energy shot from their respective blowfish and lizard at the paper to not only remove Daolon Wong's enchantment, but even cast the locator spell onto it, which was evident by the green glow that surrounded it.

"This will lead us to the real Elyon." Tohru said as Uncle took the picture while Will took out the Heart of Kandrakar to transform Cornelia, Hay Lin, Taranee, and Irma.

* * *

The group consisting of the Six Guardians, Chan Clan, Alchemy, Caleb, and Blunk all stepped out of the portal and onto what appeared to be a mountain top as they followed Uncle, who held the locator spell as it shinned brighter the closer they got to a large boulder.

"Elyon is in here." Uncle pointed to the boulder.

"Uh, Uncle, you sure your spell thing isn't expired, cause that's a boulder." Irma pointed out.

Blunk took a second to sniff the boulder. "Blunk smell Elyon, and scary orange men from room. They in there." He pointed to the boulder.

"I've heard stories about Phobos having an underground bunker." Caleb said. "Tohru, help me move this!"

"I don't think that's really necessary." Tohru said. "Cornelia, I think this is your element."

"Why thank you, Tohru." Cornelia smiled. "At least _someone_ knows how to be a gentleman." She sent that snarky remark in Caleb's direction.

"Oooh, burn." Alchemy smirked as Caleb grumbled.

Cornelia walked toward the boulder and need only trace her finger down the middle of its surface, channeling her earth-magic into it as a crack formed from where she dragged her finger before she stopped and the entire boulder broke in half, revealing the entranceway to said bunker.

Once they got a good look, the group could see a series of tunnels that led in virtually every direction. "It's like a maze down there." Will said.

"Maze not important." Uncle stated. "Locator spell is. It will lead us to real Elyon."

"Perhaps, but we're too big of a group." Jackie said. "Uncle, may I see that picture?" Uncle handed Jackie the picture, which Jackie folded into four ways before tearing it into four even-sized pieces of paper, all of which continued to glow. "We'll split into four groups of three. Will, Jade, and myself; Cornelia, Caleb, and Alchemy; Hay Lin, Tohru, and Blunk; Irma, Taranee, and Uncle. We'll look for five minutes before meeting back up here. We have no idea what's down there."

Everyone nodded in agreement as they all went down into the bunker and split off into their respective groups to go in four different directions.

* * *

Tohru held one piece of the locator spell as he tried to guide the way for Hay Lin and Blunk, but he quickly pushed them back around the corner to avoid being spotted by a group of patrolling Lurdens.

* * *

Two guards slept, while somehow standing up, around one corner of the tunnels. However, a pair of hands came up to squeeze them at their respective shoulder-neck areas, causing them to fall unconscious, curtsey of Uncle. The elder chi-wizard held one piece of the locator spell as well as he led Irma and Taranee further into the tunnels.

* * *

Jackie held another quarter of the locator spell as he led Will and Jade down a tunnel that appeared lined with priceless portraits and treasures. "Looks like we found Phobos' treasure vault." Will commented.

"Let's keep looking." Jackie told them.

However, Jade came to a sudden stop as she felt a chill down her spine. "Uh guys… I think I… have the willies."

Before either Jackie or Will could ask what she was talking about, the eyes on one of the portrait moved toward Jade before Tarakudo himself phased out of the portrait to reveal himself.

"Welcome back." Tarakudo greeted the shocked trio. "Why don't we shake things up a little bit?" He then generated a powerful psychic blast to send all three of them flying.

* * *

Cornelia, who held the last quarter of the locator spell, led Alchemy and Caleb into a certain chamber that served as some kind of bedroom for someone of royal standings.

"This looks like a good place to a put a princess." Alchemy observed.

Cornelia took a look at the locator spell. "I don't know exactly how this works, but I think Elyon might have been here recently."

"Meaning she might be somewhere else, let's keep looking." Caleb was about to leave when Alchemy noticed something on the desk.

"Hey guys, look!" She pointed to something familiar that she and Cornelia both recognized, prompting them to run quickly toward the desk, with Caleb close behind.

"It's her sketchbook!" Cornelia exclaimed as she saw the torn picture in the sketchbook. She brought her quarter-piece of the torn paper serving as the locator spell close to the torn picture and realized she had one piece of said picture.

However, a sudden horn-noise sounded throughout the entire cavern, startling Cornelia and Alchemy.

"They know were here!" Caleb exclaimed. "Let's get out of here!" But before they could move back up the stairs; a group of soldiers and Lurdens had entered the room and approached the trio.

"Hold on!" Cornelia grabbed both Caleb and Alchemy and flew upward toward the ceiling, while using her earth-powers to create a large enough opening for them to fly into and escape. Though it wasn't big enough for them to fly, they were still able to climb back up to the surface. Cornelia came first as she helped Alchemy before pulling up Caleb next.

But, once she pulled him up, the two suddenly realized just how close they were to one another as they ended up staring into each other's eyes.

"Um guys… I hate to interrupt the moment, but we got company!" Alchemy brought them out of their short-lived fantasy as they noticed they were quickly surrounded by Cedric, Daolon Wong, and a large group of guards and Lurdens.

"Leaving so soon?" Cedric hissed.

However, before the bad guys could attack; a series of chi-blasts, fireballs, gusts of wind, and steams of water shot down from the hill behind them as Taranee, Irma, and Hay Lin flew down, with Uncle and Tohru running below them, and Blunk sliding down the hill. The four Guardians got to work blasting away all the guards and Lurdens as Tohru leapt at Cedric and tackled him down the hill, crashing the shapeshifter into a large rock near the bottom of the hill. Uncle shot a series of chi blasts at Daolon Wong with his blowfish, who erected a barrier of dark magic to block the attacks as returned fire with his own dark chi blasts.

"Thanks guys." Alchemy regrouped with everyone.

"Hey, where's' Will, Jade, and Jackie?!" Cornelia questioned upon seeing who was missing from their group.

Almost in direct response to her question; a powerful blast erupted from the ground on the other side of the hill as the aforementioned trio was sent flying out before sliding on the snowy ground as Tarakudo appeared in the air to snarl at them. However, before the Oni-King could attack, his attention was caught by a series of fire-blasts from Taranee who tried to throw her attacks at him, but Tarakudo caught the fireballs with his psychic powers before throwing them at both Taranee and Cornelia to send them back.

Hay Lin and Irma also tried to provide some help as the later shot a powerful surge of water to try and encompass Tarakudo right as Hay Lin inhaled to send a cold stream of air from her mouth in an attempt to freeze Tarakudo. However, he erected barrier with his own powers to block the attack and create a wall of ice in front of him before he broke it apart into several smaller chucks and send them flying at the pair of Guardians, who found themselves unable to avoid it as they were hit and sent crashing into the recovering Cornelia and Taranee.

"Guys!" Jade exclaimed as she saw her friends hurt.

Tohru, Uncle, Caleb, Blunk, and Alchemy also saw what was happening and wanted to provide help, but they were each stuck in their own predicaments. Tohru was locked in another brawl against Cedric, Uncle was still engaged in a wizard-duel against Daolon Wong, and Caleb was using his katana to block and parry the weapon strikes of the small army of guards, doing his best to protect Alchemy and Blunk.

Jackie tried to reach into his coat-pocket and pull out an onion, but Tarakudo had already grabbed him with his powers and slammed him into the incoming Will before pinning both of them hard on to a large rock, much to Jade's shock as she heard them groan in pain.

"Out of all my new enemies, you two have been the most persistent." Tarakudo commented as he used his powers to pry a series of icicles from a nearby rocky-ledge and aimed them at the trapped duo. "I think it's time to put an end to that, don't you?" He sent the icicle's at them with the intent of skewering both of them.

"NO!" Jade screamed as she flew in front of them, instinctively using her powers in the form of a black wave of shadow that not only obliterate the icicles but even struck Tarakudo to send him crashing onto the ground, much to the shock of not just Jade, but also Will and Jackie; and everyone else, be they hero or villain.

"Did… did she just… hurt Tarakudo?" Taranee asked.

"Her powers are like his, aren't they?" Hay Lin questioned. "You know, fight fire with fire?"

"Or shadow with shadow." Irma smirked.

Jade looked at her own hands as she had shadows pulsating in both her palms. She could actually hurt Tarakudo without an onion! This caused her to smirk almost evilly as she eyed the recovering Tarakudo.

"Oh, I know that look." Will smirked as well, having a good idea what was about to happen next.

Even Jackie had a smirk of his own. "I don't normally encourage violence but… go and kick his teeth in, Jade."

With that, Jade flew straight for Tarakudo, shadows coating both her fists with her shadow magic as she decked him across the cheek to send him spiraling through the air. Jade pressed the advantage as she flew at him, laying multiple punches across his face before coating her right foot in the same way and delivering an axe-kick in-between his eyes to send him crashing to the ground.

Tarakudo tried to recover as he launched a psychic wave at Jade, but she created a barrier of shadow magic in front of her to neutralize the attack before exploding the barrier in the form of similar shadow-like waves that hit Tarakudo and sent him skidding down the hill across the snow.

"This is for brainwashing me!" Jade exclaimed as the shadows around her hands began to take shape in the form of razor-sharp claws as she slashed at his face, causing Tarakudo to scream in agony before Jade kicked him into the air. "This is for trying to kill my friends and family!" She dealt a powerful uppercut into Tarakudo's jaw to send him flying further up into the air. But Jade wasn't done yet as she threw out a cluster of shadows to completely encase Tarakudo in a sphere of shadow magic before attaching a tether of the same substance that she connected to her hands. "And this is for being so damn annoying!" She used her own enhanced strength, combined with the gathered momentum she got as she flew back down to the surface as she swung the trapped Tarakudo like a makeshift weapon right into Cedric to send him crashing and rolling across the ground, smacking him into his soldiers before he fell on top of Daolon Wong.

"Whoo! Go Jade!" Hay Lin cheered.

"Kick his butt!" Irma also exclaimed as the heroes began to regroup behind her.

"Even though he doesn't have one!" Alchemy also exclaimed.

Cedric, Wong, Tarakudo, and all the guards and Lurdens groaned as they saw Jade hovering over them, glaring daggers at every single one of them.

"Wait! Wait! Wait! Hold on sec!" Tarakudo tried to plead with her as he hovered closer toward her. "You have such incredible power! Why waste it with _them_! Do you really think they can help you to master it? Come with me and I can help make you into something far greater than just a simple Guardian!"

"Okay." Jade said simply, causing most of her friends to gasp.

"Really?" Tarakudo asked with a hopeful smile.

"Hell no!" Jade quickly exclaimed. She then channeled her powers into all the shadows that she sensed around Cedric, Wong, and the guards and Lurdens before she actually controlled all the shadows and began to pull them from the ground, wrapping around all the villains as some of those shadows took the form of tendrils to ensnare Tarakudo and pull him back down to the villains before they were all encased in a massive sphere of shadow magic, which Jade lifted into the air with her own powers.

"Enjoy the trip down!" Jade exclaimed as she sent the sphere of shadows rolling down the mountain, all the villains inside screaming as it continued to roll and probably wouldn't stop till it reached the very bottom. Once it was out of sight, Jade fell to her knees in both exhaustion and satisfaction. "That felt good."

"That was so awesome!" Alchemy squealed as everyone came around Jade in celebratory fashion. "You kicked all their butts!"

"Shadow powers for the win!" Irma pumped her fist.

"We won't be seeing them anytime soon." Taranee smirked.

"Shadow girl cool! Blunk like!" Even Blunk hopped up and down in excitement.

"Let's hear it for the newest Guardian, Jade Chan!" Hay Lin lifted Jade's hand into the air like one would do with a heavy-weight boxing champion.

"Yeah, not bad, not bad at all." Caleb nodded in approval.

"Way to kick their teeth in, girl." Cornelia congratulated.

"Magic has defeated magic." Even Uncle approved.

"Great work, Jade." Tohru put a hand on her shoulder.

"See, what did I tell you?" Will reminded her friend as she smiled at her. Jade smiled back, even as she glanced toward Jackie as he smiled and gave a thumbs up of his own.

"Thanks guys." Jade was more than happy to receive all their praise. "Come on, let's go home."

"Wait, what about Elyon?" Cornelia reminded everyone as she took out her piece of the locator spell, only to find it was no longer glowing. Tohru, Uncle, and Jackie each brought out their own pieces to find they were not glowing either.

"Spell has indicated that Elyon is no longer here." Uncle assumed.

"They must have moved her once the fighting started. Right under our noses." Jackie said in a minor scowl, causing Cornelia to look down in sadness. "I am sorry Cornelia." Jackie told her as he put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I promise we will get Elyon back."

"Yeah, we will. All of us." Alchemy said as she wrapped her arms around Cornelia's right arm in support.

"You still got us." Taranee said in support

"Eh….yeah, me to." Even Caleb offered his support. "As long as you don't want to talk about make-up and, ya know, girly stuff."

"Thanks everybody." Cornelia said to the group with a sad, yet appertained smile.

"And hey, next time we see that jerk of a brother of hers, we'll both kick his teeth in. Deal?" Jade smirked as she offered her hand for a high-five.

Cornelia smirked back as she exchanged the high-five with Jade. "Deal."

"Come on, let's go home." Jackie said as the group was about to head back through the portal, but as they began to leave, Cornelia paid one final glance toward the hole she made that led into the underground bunker.

* * *

A little bit after everyone had left, Elyon reappeared inside her room within her bunker, with Finn, Ratso, and Chow right by her side.

"Looks like all the fighting's over." Chow said.

"You know, we could have gotten your sketchbook for you." Ratso told the princess.

Elyon smiled at the trio. "Thanks guys, but I can handle it. It wouldn't have even been two minutes, just a quick in-and-out, you didn't have to come with me."

"We're your guards, so it's kinda our job." Finn replied. "Besides, don't wanna get on your brother's bad side."

"Yeah, you know how over-protective siblings get." Ratso added. "My sister was a handful when we were kids."

"Well, it all comes from a good place." Elyon said. "He might be a bit protective, but Phobos is sweet."

The Dark Hand trio tried to hide their winces. They could all agree that Elyon was a sweet kid and they felt bad lying to her like this, but given they were directly under Phobos' control, through Daolon Wong, they didn't necessarily have a choice. However, they noticed something odd from the nearby desk.

"Uh why is the sketchbook glowing?" Chow asked as Elyon looked in minor surprise to see faint green glow coming from her desk.

Elyon walked closer toward it, and the closer she walked, the brighter the glow was. She looked to see four smaller pieces of torn paper just below the larger torn piece in her sketchbook. Though she wasn't aware of it, it was apparent the locater-spell was still active, and it appeared to have found the real Elyon. She attempted to touch it, but the second she did, there was a bright flash as the entire torn sheet of paper was somehow mended into the single drawing of her best friend, Cornelia's face. This caused Elyon to gasp slightly as she looked at herself in the mirror with an uncertain expression on her face.

**Done.**

**So, J-WITCH is now official as Jade has become the sixth Guardian. And her power comes from shadows; not just her ability to generate dark attacks from her hands, but also to sense and control the shadows of other living beings. Though she's still getting used to it, Jade will soon find that she has probably the greatest out of all the Guardian powers, equal to that of Will's once her own full power is unlocked later on. **

**Anyway, I hope you guys liked this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Next chapter, we finally get back into the quest for the Oni Masks as I've got more than a few surprises as to who wears those masks. Some might be the same as in the JCA cannon, others might be different. Either way, lots of fun in the future and I look forward to writing all of it. Until then, stay safe and stay healthy out there. **


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